So, this is the last blog entry here, but it won’t be the ending of my blogging, and it will be far more active at it’s new home in the future!

I have signed a contract with a new video instruction site called PokerSwat, that will be going live in September, obviously I cannot discuss the details, but I know they have huge hopes for it,and I wouldn’t have signed if I didn’t feel that the ownership didn’t know what they were doing. I’m really excited and grateful for the opportunity to do videos on a more professional manner,

as well as being given the chance to gain more exposure, and who knows what else can come from it in the future! All my blogging will be done on PokerSwat once it is up and running, and it will be updated much more regularly and with a lot more enthusiasm!

I’ve already made a few videos for the launch, which I’m really excited about, I have no idea what’s going to happen, all I can do is hope that it will be a success.

Because of this, I will be removing all of my videos from being downloadable now too.

On poker side… not played much since I got back from DTD, in the middle of another horrible run, the last 3 weeks, all I do is final 2 table the big tournaments at best, it’s ridiculously frustrating, everytime I think I’m gonna end my downswing, I break even for day at best. I’ve become pretty miserable at times which is annoying me even more, cos I hate nothing more than being miserable, so I’m gonna go into the next 2 days of grinding really really focused and in a good mood. I’ve also decided that once WCOOP is over, I’m going to start the live tournament grind. I’m going to try make DTD’s 3-2-1 weekend as often as possible, whilst also playing GUKPT Ramsgate, EPT London (if i qualify), DTD £1k event, and then in January, I think I may make a month of it, and go to EPT Bahamas and then Aussie Millions, as I think it would just be an absolutely awesome experience.

On the non poker side… I’ve become lazy in my exercise, so I think I’m going to go swimming as often as possible during september in the afternoons, and then grind MTT’s in the evening whilst WCOOP is on, swimming is perfect for me now,and as I’m in the city now, it’s not even a trek, so I’ll definitely be doing it.

Even though I’ve been lazy, and eating pretty crap at times for past month or so, I’m still 12st 5, in March or so, I was just under 15 stone I think, so it’s an amazing turnaround which I never expected to achieve so fast, of course it will get harder now, but as I’ve lost a load of weight, the most important thing now is to build up my stamina/muscles, rather than focus on losing weight solely, as if I become the thinnest in the family, all the old family pictures would look stupid!

Lastly, a big thanks to everyone thats supported this blog and me personally, whether financially, emotionally, whatever, I’m approaching really exciting times that could easily change my life forever, and most of it wouldnt be possible, if it wasn’t for those people who staked me and believed in me.

Thanks everyone for reading my EMS blog over such a long time, this is only a goodbye from my blog!

Jon

So I’ve been grinding donkaments ever since friday night, and am now around $35k up from them, the big result coming in the big $50 on stars, winning it for just under $14k! I’m obviously more than delighted and on course for my biggest month yet, of course, that can so easily change as the variance is disgusting, the funny thing is, I could quite easily be over 6 figs already with a big more luck!

Friday sees a bit of relaxing, I doubt I will play either FTOPS event, as it’s the $300 1R+A (I hate 1R+A tournies, and I don’t fancy spending $900 on it), and $200 stud hi (the worst game ever invented)

Instead, I’m gonna focus on qualifying for a few tournies, and just grind the full tilt dailys again probably, as I’m still in the top 5 of the leaderboard! I’ve noticed that to get to the very top, you need to just grind the 45/90 man sng’s as well, so I’m going to try and get in a ton of volume of them over the weekend so that I can challenge for 1st (which is worth like $1k but it’s more the pride of winning that matters)

The big highlight tournies over the weekend for me are the $300 6 max on FT, Party Poker million, FTOPS events ($500 PLO 6 max, $100r NLHE and the 3 NLHE events on the sunday), and of course the sunday majors on stars, and probably boss and ipoker too

Hopefully I can take a huge tourny down and really cap the month off, cos it’s sure been awesome so far!

Nothing more to add to that, won $150 Omaha Hi/Lo tourny on UB for $4.5k, finished 5th in $150 on FT for $8.5k or so, should have been 32k! Cashed in $100r’s on FT and Stars for 4.5k combined, went out of the FT $100r with KK vs AA with 8 left, could have been a huge score too, then I lost AT vs A9 in the Stars $100r, followed by KJ vs AQ to go out on last 2 tables, was very very annoyed!

I ended the weekend somewhere around $22k up, which is obv an amazing weekend and couldn’t have asked for much more!

Today has been pretty terrible, I decided I was gonna play a lot less today, I decided to play some $400nl full ring on Full Tilt, as the 6 max games were very tough when I looked, so I sat and decided to play pretty LAG for full ring standards, and try and punish the nitty reg’s. I ran at like 18/15 and played pretty well I thought, but still ended around $1.2k down, was just 1 of those sessions, I had 76 diamonds on a 9d 8d x board and got it in vs 98 for a $1k pot, and I missed everything, then had KTc, raised from EP, a reg called. Board came 883, I c bet, he raises quite small, knowing how most people play, I put him on a pair and "raising for information", and thought I’d just 3 bet and take the pot down a ton of time, he then flatted my 3 bet and I thought… oh crap. The turn was a perfect card, the Ac, giving me flush draw and so much bluff potential, the pot was also so big that I had to get it in, I bet like half my remaining stack, and he shoved, my face dropped as I knew I was crushed, but had to call with like 4.5/1 odds or whatever it was, he turend over 33 for the flopped boat

I then decided to play a few donkaments in the evening, and also thought I’d try qualify for the $1k monday, I played 6 $100 satellites, I managed to have the following happen:

1st one, finished 10 off a seat, was all in 9 times I think, and I won 3 of them, and was never worse than racing

2nd one, KK vs AA

3rd one, AK vs AA

4th one QJ vs QQ bvb

5th one.. god knows, probs an outdraw

6th one.. again, not worth worrying about

So that was another $600+ down, as well as playing a few other tournaments, so I was around $2.5k down for the day

Then played some $400nl 6 max, started pretty terribly when some UK guy 5 bet shoved 88 into my QQ and got there, and then proceeded to label me a "tournament donk", he seemed pretty average at best and so I will certainly be sitting with him, hopefully at a HU table too! Managed to claw money back though, and looks like I’m going to end the day around $2k down, I mean I don’t mind losing the money, of course it’s going to happen, it’s just I hate it when it goes in such annoying fashion, but oh well… I am sat playing 1 tournament, $100 on stars where I’m 30/96 with 81 paid, would be quite nice to end the day on a high.

Tomorrow will for sure be a very relaxed day, before the grinding begins on wednesday for FTOPS!

I wasn’t really expecting to play anything today.. was just gonna take it easy, then thought… why not, lets grind some $400nl. Obviously I proceed to drop $2.4k in the space of 700 hands! Took a break, played some $400nl HU and won like $2k of it back!

Then I decided to play a load of donkaments this evening for some reason, and somehow, I actually managed to run ok pre final table, and cashed in a load of them, but got a 3rd in the $30 rebuy and a 4th in $129 KO on full tilt, for combined of like $5k, so I end the month (or begin the month you could say), on a high and somewhere around $20k profit which I’m very happy with after the absolutely terrible June that I had!

The first day of the new month will involve taking it easy, I am off out in the evening for a meal and a few drinks with a load of friends which should be a lot of fun, and as it’s 4:40am when I type this, I’m pretty sure I’ll be wide awake tomorrow evening, so may well play some late night donkaments.

Oh and, I’ve ordered my new 30" monitor, which should arrive Saturday! It’s very exciting to finally be getting 1, and let’s hope it’s as good as I expect (cos when you pay like £900 for a monitor, I think expecting high quality isnt too much to ask!)

Ok, it’s time to start blogging again and stick at it!

So… what has happened since the last entry.. well, I’ve switched to focusing on cash games as donkaments are just so beyond frustrating, so much that I’ve begun to play pretty awful at times. So the plan is to just play them on sundays, except during series, so I’ll be playing a few during FTOPS which starts next wednesday. I will be playing almost all the events, hopefully I’ll have a nice successful series, and sneak into most of them in satellites to save on the cost, and with any luck, I can get a few swaps in with Jagz to win me that little bit more!

I moved up from Stars $200nl to Stars $400nl, and proceeded to run really good, made about 4k over 8500 hands, and ran $2k above expectation. But I knew I was lucky, and I was nowhere near good enough. So I signed up to DeucesCracked, and spent a few days studying a load of vids, and just brought out the old aggressive side that I had.

I also moved from Stars $400nl to Full Tilt $400nl as the games are softer, and I’ve also took some shots at $600nl and $1000nl, which have gone really well. My game has changed from an 20/17/2, to a 24/21/3.5, I feel I’m playing 10x better and understand game dynamics so much more, and that is why I have been able to have this graph since I switched to FT:

Graph

So, that’s what I’ve been up to, next month I’m hoping to win a few donkaments, and hopefully grind about 40,000 hands of $400nl on FT, another 5 figure month would go down very nicely!

My fav moment of the month has to be how I managed to get Hans Vogl, the Full Tilt "pro", to tilt in the chat box at me today. I’m up $2k on him alone so far since I moved, as he proceeds to run into all my sets, and he finally seemed to have had enough when he goes "How lucky can 1 person be?", and proceeds to say how good I run blah blah, but if you look at his stats, it’s pretty obvious why he doesn’t win (although he is running pretty bad in my sample, he is extremely predictable, and plays a ton of tables at once)

Oh, and I almost forgot, my FTOPS jersey arrived yesterday, It’s pretty average, pretty uncomfortable to wear, and makes me look about 2 stone heavier (I guess thats the americans excuses too…), as you insist, you can see the front and back of the shirt here and here

I’m taking a few days off as I’ve been playing far too much as usual, but I’ve also been starting to feel anger and even tilted at times over the weekend, which I thought wouldn’t happen again!

The past week has been focusing on big tournaments, and it’s been fairly unsuccessful, a few final tables here and there, but no wins! I’ve managed to final table the $150 on Full Tilt twice within a week… for 9th and 8th place, which is really not great. Got there last night and was 3/9 going into FT, then sat around waiting, then lose QQ vs AK for a pot which put me chip leader, so yeah I kinda feel crap at being so close to $25k 1st prize.

I feel I have a ton of work to do on my game, in tournaments and cash, my cash game has gone backwards, so I’m going to talk to a few people and try and get it back on track. The most important thing I need to sort out, is some kind of recording of my finances, as I’d say I’ve now moved into the stage where 4 figure up and downswings are gonna be very very common.

I think I may focus on my mixed games too, I really enjoy HORSE, and I feel I do have an edge in most of the cash games that go on stars and full tilt, I just need to work on my Stud Hi game!

I guess this means I’m going to be spending the next week reading super system and cardrunners videos!

The blogging has been at a stand still as I have really been struggling for thinks to talk about.. which is kinda funny as I’m usually one who isn’t lost for words!

I will finish off the WCOOP videos too by the end of this month!

Ok all is well again after a series of nice cashes, I just hit a nasty downswing straight after, but I’ve made a load of final tables since, I managed a 5th in a $150 tourny for $4.3k, a load of other 5th, 6th and 7th places in stars tournies for $500-$750, and I did a deal 4 way with a big chip lead in a $25 tourny for $1.15k.

Not just all that… I then cashed in both FTOPS events last night, which I’m really happy about, I just wish I could have got a little deeper in both!

I’m taking today off to be fully rested for a rush of sunday donkaments tomorrow, I was tempted to try satellite into the $2.5k 2 day event, but decided against.

Lastly, a big congratulations to Portsmouth on winning the FA Cup, I guess having a bro as a Pompey fan makes you have a soft spot for them, but really happy to see a team not expected to do it, do it! Now if they make some good midfield and attack signings over the summer, they could be a serious threat next year!

I sit here writing at 6am, wondering what has happened since my last blog entry. From the huge euphoria of winning such a huge event, to how I feel right now. I’ve been just playing a load of tournaments on stars and full tilt mainly, at $20-$200 buyins, and I’ve managed small cashes in about 5 out of the 60-70 I’ve played (at a guess), I honestly think I’ve won about 10% of races, I mean sure I know it’s just short term variance etc etc, but surely that can’t be the only reason I’m not doing great, I mean, I’m feeling I’m playing ok and I can’t see where I’m massively spewing, the problem seems to be that I just cannot build a stack to save my life it feels like. Now, to combat the ridiculously over-aggressive players in these tournies who are far better than me post flop, I play much tighter than I used to, and just 3 bet all in often, of course I get them to fold often, but of course I don’t get paid off either with my big hands, however weird it feels saying this, it’s been a weird struggle the last few days, coping with the poor results. I’m down a 4 figure sum but that doesn’t bother me as that’s to be expected, it’s the fact that I actually think my tournament game has taken a backward step after playing like a nit in the FTOPS win, but it just feels like I’m not finding situations to build stacks.

I’m not gonna overly bother myself about it though, I’m taking the day off until the HA event later (PLHE mixed with PLO), and just going to play some cash tables, rather than lots of tournies.

Poker is such a funny game!

"Let’s hope things improve in the PLHE tonight", yeah, I suppose I’m content with winning it for almost $50,000!!!!!!

Managed to win with the magical 82os to take it down, from 1074 runners, taking 7 hours. I was very card dead for most of the tournament, but the game is easy when you don’t lose an all in! I played ridiculously tight all night,  and worst hand I showed down on final table was A6 vs short stack, the rest of time was TT+, I am absolutely over the moon and it’s about bloody time that I ran good and took the step up that I was missing, I had wasted opportunities to win huge events in the past, this time I didn’t fail, I got the job done, and I’m almost reducing myself to tears just thinking about it!

LUNCHBOX FOR THE WIN!

Well, I’ve played the first 2 events, and it’s same old, same old so far. The 1st event, the 6 max NLHE started bad when I lost half my stack with straight vs higher rivered straight etc, then I won a few small pots, and then I got into a big hand with aces, and I was suddenly back over the 3k starting stack, I then went on a huge rush and was up to 22k, and then my AQ < KQ obviously, as he calls all in for 7k more or something ridiculous, and then I lose A5 vs KQ after a flop of AQ7.. just wasn’t to be and I ended up like 100 off money.

Fast forward to Event 2, the $256 PLO Knockout tourny, was a really, really, boring event. I had a really good start and doubled up basically, and then I lost boat over boat etc, then sat waiting for ages, got it in with AQQ7 vs KK93 and he flopped 2 pair and that was goodnight for the tourny, again 100 off the money.

Let’s hope things improve in the PLHE tonight.