Great to see you doing so well Reg. I also posted on EMS in those halcyon days . You keep in touch with anyone? You've probably noticed Pads is crushing the MTT scene.

What was your EMS name TGTB?

The full ring grind never got started last night as I couldn't get a table on 888 and after sitting alone at a $50nl and a $100nl table for 15 mins without anyone even sniffing at the tables I played some 6 max reg tables on FTP instead, which is just what I'm about to do again right now on stream

I was BradleyW on EMS.

I remember you sir

I miss EMS, it is a great shame that it died.

Me too bud, was a great forum. To be fair this has a similar ethos to EMS. Replies to hand histories etc are all nice and friendly and I doubt posters will come on your journey thread and flame like they would do on 2+2 for example.

Anyway, great to see how far you have come Reg - you have turned into a solid player and the perseverance has paid off! Good luck! Hope to be joining you at 50nl soon if results keep going my way.

Hello again guys.

I have been very busy lately and have been overcommitted in several areas meaning I haven't had much time to maintain a blog.

Things have slowed down for me a little and I have time to make a little update.

I am quickly getting turned off by NLHE. I think the game is dying in ring game terms. Good games are hard to come by, there are way too many regs on all sites compared to fish and the market just looks completely saturated to me. I think there might still be some legs on the softer sites but for me, spending time pushing razor thin edges over high volume to make a semi decent hourly just doesn't float my boat much.

I've started taking an interest in 6 card omaha games on FTP. They're insanely swingy but the game quality is out of this world most of the time when games are running. I have also started streaming again, although not as intensely as last time as I just don't have the time to commit to a regular schedule.

Hopefully I'll be around a lot more going forward, getting to know people better and immersing myself back into the online poker lifestyle.

I have been suffering quite badly with some weird virus and water infection combo that has completely destroyed my sleep pattern. I have been sleeping for no more than 2-3 hours at a time and sleeping multiple times per day. When I'm not tired, I have been feeling fine but when the tiredness hits, I feel wiped out very quickly. I've never experienced anything quite like it but I seem to be getting the better of it now. I went to bed at 10.30 last night and slept through until 5am which is great in terms of hours slept but waking up at 5am is just weird lol.

Anyway, on to the poker.

I have been playing mostly on FTP the last few days. A lot of that has been 6 card PLO but I also had a short NL session yesterday morning. I am still very much enjoying playing less tables and I'm also enjoying learning more about 6 card Omaha, which is a fun game. On Tuesday, I dropped 6 buyins in around 150 hands, yesterday, I recovered. I think I learned a decent amount about the game during the crazy session, mostly to do with identifying bad situations and the adjustments required to alleviate the problems if the table is just too good to leave.

I'm still far from sure that I'm playing the game well but I'm definitely playing it better than 90% of the players I've seen so far, which is kind of all we need to be doing in any poker game to be profitable. That said, I will obviously continue to work hard on improving as I think there is potential for me to create my own mini poker boom if I can become one of the best players in these games at the upper micro's.

Pretty excited about poker again right now and it's a lovely feeling.

How much difference is there between 4/5 and 6 card PLO?

Personally, I find 6 card Omaha easier.

It's easier for me to make disciplined laydowns because it's much easier to put someone on the nuts or near nuts and fold and it's much easier to extract value because people have good, second best hands more often.

Also, right now, I'm finding that not many regs are in the games I'm playing. Obviously any game that does not have very many regulars are going to be way softer than more popular games that have a less favourable rec:reg ratio.

Since the last update, I have played more NL than I have PLO

I have been getting involved on a couple of sites with replying to hand histories and reading the posts, other players replies etc. has sharpened my mind significantly and I've been enjoying making a few small adjustments based on a few things I've noticed in other people's games.

I've also been playing at different times of the day, mostly due to my still being very tired at the end of the day because of this virus thing I've been having problems with and I feel much sharper for it. I seem to be more focused at the start of a day than I do at the end of a day. Not sure if there is any logic behind that, or whether it's because I've been catching up with forums and moving into sessions but the change of routine has sparked something for sure.

I'll be slowing down over the next few days. I don't play much over the Christmas period, I'll probably not play on the 24th, 25th and maybe come back on the evening of the 26th. I'd like to wish you all a merry Christmas. I hope you have been good and Santa brings you some nice things.

Much love

Reg

Do you think it is a gift or a curse that there is pretty much no 6 handed PLO content out there in the world btw?

It's a gift.

I'd back myself to learn and understand the game quicker than many of my peers and because of that, the longer it stays in the shadows, the better (as long as games keep running) I still think game selection is important though because just playing with a bunch of 40/20 regs all waiting to mash pot with the nuts and folding everything else is i)boring and ii)probably unprofitable due to the rake.

I haven't had time to read all the posts yet, but just dropping by to say WOOO REGITIME!

Big fan man! I watch all your Youtube vids and you've helped my game a lot! Keep up the great work! Excited to have you here on the forum

Thanks a lot sir.

I appreciate the awesome feedback

Hope you had a good Xmas Regi, have you played at all?

Yeh figured it would be a gift

The majority just punting but you start at a solid skill level and have the mindset to learn from mistakes, note take and to even look harder on the web for good content/people to speak with.

Had a great Christmas thanks, hope you did too. Been on poker holiday (almost) I'm still taking it easy until 3rd Jan when I expect to kick back into top gear.

Been messing around a little bit on Unibet and 888 but nothing to write home about. Looking forward to getting my hands dirty again, Jan/Feb are traditionally my best two months.

Happy new year everyone!

I'm starting back on the grind today, already had my first session and I felt I slipped back into the groove pretty easily. I've got a few idea's I'm keen to try out over future sessions, mostly around 3betting and the types of hands I'm using from particular positions versus particular opponents.

I think I needed the break. Being an online poker grinder can be quite intense, especially when you have other plates to keep spinning. It's given me some food for thought around scheduling and I might try to condense my sessions which will allow me more rest days without sacrificing volume. I'm not going to give myself set days off because I always want to be checking out games and jumping into good ones but if I play more when games are good and I'm feeling good, I shouldn't feel compelled to play as much under less favourable circumstances.

Anyway, here is a hand I played today with what I thought was an interesting river situation. I'd be interested to see what others think about what I was thinking

Time for an update since an extended poker break which meant I played very little from Christmas eve until Jan 4th.

First of all, I guess I should wish readers a belated happy new year. Good luck for 2016, I hope poker is fun and rewarding for you in equal measure

I have started 2016 mostly playing some full ring poker on 888. I'm mixing $50nl and $100nl (mostly $50 then filling up with $100nl when required) and I hope to continue with full ring poker for a good amount of time.

The reason for this is because in 2015, my enjoyment of poker dropped a little. My overall poker background since I started playing in around 2004 has been full ring orientated apart from the last 15 months or so where I have been playing mostly 6 max on various sites. Poker has to retain its enjoyment factor if I'm to achieve my goals. Too often, I find myself forcing myself to log in to play and then just grind out (usually) a speed poker session in meh pools for a winrate that is considered to be above par, making poker feel way more like a job than I ever wanted it to be.

I feel I have been doing this since starting with microstakes coaching to validate myself, as the general consensus in the poker community seems to be if you're not playing 6 max, you're some kind of inferior player who is incapable of winning in tough games. This is the first time since my teens that I have actually cared what opinion people have of me. I've always had the attitude of I am who/what I am and if you don't like it then its your problem but when you're trying to make a small income stream from offering budget coaching, it kind of matters what some people think because a constant stream of negative comments when I'm trying to generate some work can be quite damaging.

However, with that said, the coaching is only a small income stream and I consider myself a player more than a coach and maximising my poker playing income is the priority. I feel I am still perfectly able to help nanostake and lower microstake 6 max players with their games, even though I'll be mostly playing full ring and if the small band of detractors want to make an issue of my not playing 6 max, than I'll just have to accept that's part and parcel of my online life

I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into 2016. The extended break I have been on has been a huge benefit to me. It has given me time to reflect and take stock. Often, it can be hard to do this at poker as we can become entrenched in our ways, plodding on quite often mindlessly just grinding it out paying more in rake than we get in our win column and it just isn't very rewarding in terms of being an activity we get pleasure from. I love poker and if speed poker were the only option, then I would still play it. I don't have any beef with speed poker, or 6 max poker, I just prefer the longer version of the game.

I'm also hoping that going back to full ring will give me more opportunities to play some nicely structured MTT's. My 6max speed poker sessions tend to be short sharp bursts, whereas the full ring grind can often see me putting long sessions in, which means I can add some MTT's on the side. Also, I feel having my mind more tuned into full ring style poker will also help my MTT game more than 6 max would. I don't intend to play many MTT's above the $25 buyin limit at first but if I have some success in them, I will definitely consider adding some higher stakes games into my grind, again mostly to add some fun to my grind and give me more to look forward to.

On days where I can't find good tables in the full ring sections, I will be playing 6 max on Sky with impeccable game selection. I like Sky for the quality of games they provide but the software is appalling and it tilts me to play more than 3 tables, so it is just going to be my back-up plan for when games are bad. I'm starting just playing on 888 full ring, 6 tables whenever possible, I think that will meet my needs at $50nl and $100nl but if I get to a point where I want to shot $200nl, I might need to consider pokerstars but that is a bridge I will cross if/when I come to it.

Thats all for now, take care everyone,

Reg

I think coaching can burn a player out. I really have no idea how someone can coach each and every week and not get sick of it. The money is nice but a coach can make plenty from the games anyways and a lot of students can be very wearing. I got a ton of requests over the years by PM to coach on here and i think i am still at under 10 hours lifetime of doing it. Its just not what i enjoy at all and feel a student needs a coach who wants to put 100% into it basically. So good decision to concentrate more on your grind and just use coaching as a very passive income.

Yeh Sky is a gold mine and very hard to find a tough game on there so no doubt you can move up the levels quick and take some early shots. Keep at it! gl