So fucking true man. I was a victim of this so many times and just stopped it. I hateeeee playing when people are around as they make noise and also butt in.

Feeling better, lets do this!!

Played about 1500 hands this weekend, nice to be back at it after a week off. Lost a couple of buy ins though. I'm basically playing like a total fish. Calling all ins on the flop with top pair only to face trips or at least 2 pair. It's very frustrating to watch such terrible play then find yourself handing your money over to the people doing it. I need to stop chasing pots and thinking about the money. Play the hand. Only the hand. If it makes sense, do it. If it doesn't, don't.

A good way of looking at it is imagining what this player looks like. Sounds weird but it is something which helped me back in the day. Basically playing live you see the person and how happy they are to win the pot when you make a mistake. Seeing that look of glee is super tilting especially when you know it was your fault.

So when you know you are about to make a terrible call just imagine someone counting your money and laughing/smiling at you. Sounds odd but give it a try and report back.

Received confirmation of OPL finish. 14th for $100. I think my total profit after buyins is $300 plus an iPad. Pretty happy with that!

Nice work buddy! You pipped me by 3 spots!

Glad you made profit dude. So well deserved

Cheers Jon. Well excited about season 2, bring it on!!

So January has come and gone already. I haven't played as much as I'd like (partly illness and partly spending some evenings chilling with my other half as she had some time off work) and after a couple of bad sessions I'm ending the month pretty much break even, maybe 1 buyin up. 4NL on Sky is super soft so if I can remove some of the spew that is creeping back in to my game then I've no doubt Feb can be a good month. I'm planning to play every weekday evening that I can, 8pm til 10pm minimum. If the session is going good I can keep it going til 11 or so. The OPL will mess with that a little but I do want to get used to grinding while playing a tourney so I'm looking forward to it - and I'm gunning for a top 5 spot this time! Weekends are tricky. It's hard to schedule a time to play. But I do have more time so there's no excuse.

Haven't studied much apart from coaching videos. It's harder when you're not using tracking software. So I'm planning to record my sessions, that way I can not only watch them and spot my own mistakes, but also just jot down timestamps for hands I want to review. Recorded a video for review earlier in the month. Watched it back the other day. Felt like I was watching someone playing a rushed, almost panicked, game. Missing spots, timing out at one point (on only 4 tables) etc. Not sure if that's how I play normally or if it was a bad session. Will soon see and anyways I'm looking forward to Jon's analysis.

Gym is going good, hitting my targets. Apart from 1 week ill I've been 4 times each week (4 part split - Chest & Tris, Back & Bis, Legs, Shoulders - with a bit of treadmill thrown in to one or two sessions to maintain some level of fitness). I'm planning to start going 5 times per week when possible (for an added Arms & Abs session). I only go to the gym midweek as it's near work, so on days when I work from home, and weekends, I'm going to use the treadmill we have at home.

Food wise my diet is much improved midweek. I've removed protein supplements from my diet as whey gives me stomach ache (lactose intolerant) and the other types taste like shit. I've replaced it with more chicken. Typically I'm on chicken and rice for breakfast, chicken and noodles for lunch, then a regular dinner like chilli, cottage pie, jacket potato etc. I think I'm getting calories right as I'm not going too hungry and by Friday I feel and pretty sure look noticeably leaner. At the weekend it goes to shit so that's where I need to work on it. I'm also going to stop drinking tea at work, just water.

Socially life is getting better. Caught up with some old friends in Jan and catching up with some others this week - another curry night! Going to plan a night out with the mrs too as we don't get to do that nearly enough. Doing stuff with the kids too, today we went to the cinema to see Penguins of Madagascar. Pretty funny!

Financially - ok. Haven't used a credit card this month, lowered debt a little. Got a lot to pay out for this year so it will be tough but doable.

So that's it. January done. Not as good as I planned, but still not bad. I'm happy and ready to go out and own February.

Quick final session for January and I'm actually up almost 4 buyins for the month. That plus rakerace payment will make it about 8 buyins.

Sick Jan report there buddy! Yeh will be interesting to see if I saw anything different to what you did in the video review.

As for the OPL do you feel after season 1 more hyped for it than you did for season 1? Now you have seen how much money can be won, the prizes and so on? I wonder if people lost the spark or gained one basically?

@Jon-PokerVIP I'm probably too hyped if that's possible! Dreaming of taking the thing down. No doubt busting in ten minutes of the first tourney will bring me back down to earth. That first prize pool though

Haha did you see the stream i did for the opening event of week 1? First to bust out the WH tourni. All the preperation and hype, get 2 outered and that's me game over lol. Was livid!

I'm sure I replied to this already, must've been on my phone and didn't have a connection or something. Anyways it went something like... No, didn't see it, didn't take part til 2 weeks in. Gutting. At least you got a win on stream, I saw that, must have felt pretty damn good. Only a week to go now, hope to see the schedule up soon.

2500 hands played this week, 4 tabling on Sky, and I'm up 10 buy ins. Planning one more session tomorrow to hopefully end this as the best week in a long time!

Went to our local comedy night last night and there was a suprise guest, Patrick Monahan. Remember watching him win a stand up talent show on tv, Show Me The Funny, a few years ago. He was hilarious and stayed on much longer than he had to. Great fun.

Boom, best week in a long while. Started with £103.50. Almost 13 buy ins up in under 3000 hands.

I 3bet pre, villain called. I then check-called flop and turn. Villain bets river. I'm not normally happy calling three streets with 1 pair. Figure villain must at least have Ax...




Nope...

^ When you 3bet AQ, and check A high flop - you must call down all the way in most run outs. AQ I'd just bet myself, but AJ works well with a x/c, x/c, x/c line.

Limp jamming 84. Good to see.

Vicki2910 limped, atticwolf called, I squeezed. Vicki2910 donk bet the flop, atticwolf called, I squeezed again. Vicki2910 folded, atticwolf called. I bet turn and jammed river. Cheers pal.