Quick update

Well I felt like I was due a quick update.

Been settling back into my daily routine after the storm we had a few weeks ago. This means getting back into job hunting and (more interesting to my readers I assume) back to the grind.

Been doing OK so far, and despite all that happened, March is going pretty well so far. I am a slight winner, and on pace to play close to 15K hands. I should also be able to finish clearing the Cake Poker deposit bonus before the end of the month. Which means that I'll move back to the shitty iPoker client to clear more bonuses.

I have quite a few bonuses I want to clear still. Mostly on the iPoker network from bonus whores. Then there are also a few from poker source online including a year long Stox membership.

After months playing 8 tables and never really trying to add some, I finally decided to move up to 10. Even though I can't play with a HUD on Cake, it's been going pretty well. Pretty sure I could play 12 relatively easily with a HUD. This should definitly help a ton for clearing bonuses and just logging tons of hands.

No computer, no recap, no goals...

Normally this would be the time where I reflect on last month's goals and set new goals for myself for the coming month. Well still being without a computer at home, no goals for me right now other than try to squeeze as much poker as I can.

In the last month I've started clearing a bonus on CD poker and took my first shot at NL50. Things went OK at NL50 and as soon as I get a computer at home this is where I will still try to play. I lost a bit of money but nothing worth panicking yet. I think the little I played at NL50, I played pretty well. Hopefully as soon as I can start playing again things will settle. Worst case I'll step back down for a while at NL20.

In the meantime I might go take a look at Montreal's various poker rooms and maybe even go back to the casino... We'll see I guess...

I can smell it...

Well since my laptop was stolen I have not been playing anything near my usual volume. That said, playing HUD-less has forced me to play more focused and while I suffered a bit from fancy play syndrome at first (I often do following a hiatus), my results overall have been pretty good. Add to that the fact that I'm currently clearing a bonus on CD Poker and I've quietly made it very close to my year goal of reaching NL50 by the end of 2008.

It's strange, in the past whenever I was getting close to move up I would get edgy, impatient and kinda nervous about it. Not this time. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm not playing like I'm used to (currently playing HUD less and on less tables), or the fact that I'm not playing as much or that I'm clearing a bonus... Anyway, I don't feel the jitters I had when closing in on NL25.

On another note, I have been talking poker strategy a lot with a good friend of mine who is struggling a bit right now playing on his first online money. I love this! Talking about lots of stuff forces me to think about it all and ask myself why I do certain things. I also tried to come up with a basic strategy that could make him an instant winner from NL2 to NL10 (and most likely even higher). My goal was to come up with an easy to teach playbook that would keep it simple and still be efficient. This has been a recurring theme for me lately. I was discussing a prop bet idea with Alex. The bet was that in 4 hours of coaching I could make someone with just basic poker knowledge (like a flush beats a straight type of knowledge) a winner at NL2. We have not come up with a candidate or the particular details of how this bet would work out but I thought it would be an interesting idea. So if you know someone who would be a nice candidate let me know!

Please oh please! Can September be over now?

Between driving to Quebec city and back to see my father at the hospital (he's doing better everyday btw), packing up my stuff to move to my new condo and organising the 30th birthday of my girlfriend I can't say I've had much time to play poker. Just to make matter worse, I might be without an internet connection for a few days after I moved. Hopefully one of my neighboors has an unsecured WiFi connection I can hijack!

The bit that I did play at the beginning of the month was not very focused and did not bring the best results. Thankfully though, I've been able to play a bit the last few days and things went well. I won back almost everything I had lost in the first few days of September. Hurray!

I am still grinding NL20 on iPoker playing 8 tables at a time. Play there is definitly nittier than it is on stars or party, that said most people are bad nits so it's pretty easy to make decent gains there. Once I go back to having a stable schedule I think it will be relatively easy to get to NL50. Especially considering I will most likely start bonus whoring the various ipoker skins!

I am also looking forward to another coaching session with SplitSuit. Seems like the last one was ages ago!

For October and November, Alex and me are starting another "volume bet". Whoever plays more hands in these 2 months wins. Playing more hands is one of my focus right now so this should help keep me motivated.

May thoughts and June goals... or how Nic failed

I guess I should be happy about having the best monthly results I've ever had. But I fell so short of my goals that I can't spin this in a way to make me feel good.

My May goals were :
- Play 15,000 hands of online NL Hold'Em
- Post a winning month
- Take a shot at NL25
- Keep updating this blog.

Now I definitly managed to achieve 3 of these goals. But 8885 hands in a month?!? This is nowhere near what I need to put out. The last time I played less than 9K hands was in december!

On the good side, I managed to move up to NL25. Actually most of my month was played at that level. One of my yearly goal was to move up to NL25 by this summer and doing so at the beginning of May is definitly satisfying. I also feel that I kept that blog updated pretty well. But I definitly have to play more hands than this. This is especially true since I want to make bonus whoring one of my focus for the next few months.

Now where does that leave me for June. Well, here are my June goals :
- Play 12,000 hands of online NL Hold'Em
- Post a winning month
- Deposit on CD Poker and start clearing the 200$ 1st time deposit bonus there
- Keep updating this blog.

Now about bonuses. Browsing through the bonus whores site I managed to find a few bonuses that are definitly clearable at NL25. This should help me take shots at NL50 earlier than anticipated. The first one I will attack will be the 200$ bonus on CD poker. Seems relatively easy to clear at NL25. Then I might take a shot at the 600$ deposit on FullTilt. Seems clearable at NL25, would also finally release the money I have on FullTilt and won in a freeroll a while ago! Clearing the FullTilt Bonus might be a bit of a stretch at NL25... but I'll evaluate things once I clear the bonus at CD Poker. By then my roll might be enough to take shots at NL50, so who knows...

Anyway, if you're a poker player and haven't checked bonus whores I think you owe it to yourself to take a look at it... unless you hate money