Right then where are we? Oh yes, iv played about 4 tournies in the last 3 weeks, sick volume aye?? Been a bit of a problem with the stable over the past couple of weeks which has prevented us all from grinding. Don't really want to go into the specifics, but i think we are just about sorted now and we're all about ready to go again. We had a bit of a stable meeting with our two backers over dinner (well, we went to nando's at 7.30 and cheeky duck at midnight with about 6 pints inbetween) and we went over a few things to do with the stable. It's the first time Jerry and Wrighty (our backers) have really staked people in great depth, certainly not to the extent where probably $15k plus of their money is spread out through our accounts. So i guess there's always going to be a bit of uncertainty when we are still pretty young in the staking process. They are approaching the staking deal for us as quite a long term thing, and want us to get our rolls up north of $20k and be able to get us playing mid-high stakes MTT's and crushing them like they do. Obviously its a bloody long process if your as lazy as i am, but its something quite exciting to think/dream about. This is another thing that should inspire me to grind, will probably work [ ] Oh yer, and the fact that i wouldnt mind a few quid right about now.
In other news, i mentioned a while ago that we, The Walkers Sensensations, had an interview to go on the BBC t.v show Eggheads. We didnt hear anything back for a while, and after a couple of weeks we had pretty much given up hope of getting on the show. Until out of the blue we recieved a phone call from one of the lasses at the show saying we were on the shortlist, and that there is a fairly decent chance we'll get to test our brains against the best!! So thats pretty exciting, quietly confident of victory of course, but why wouldnt I be when you look at the calibur and shear class running through our team. In some more other news, sadly, Mark "spoona" Brewis has left his position as card room manager of circus in pursuit of a "proper carear". Why he wouldnt want to spend his life talking to Flett, Rogertard and I-Call i have no idea but hey-ho. Best of luck to him, he will be massivly missed as a boss and as a friend. And i will massivly miss his beard too. Also, speaking of hair, iv decided to shave my hair quite short, this is definatly to do with fashion, and nothing to do with the fact i cant be arsed to go to the barbers below my flat and let them do it. Also, with the money saved, i can buy a subway.
Thanks for reading
Buzzzzzzzz
Friday 21 October 2011
Thursday 6 October 2011
October 6th 2011
Been around a month since i last updated the blog, been quite an eventful month which included me nearly losing a testical, but more on that later.
The last couple of weeks iv actually started to put in a few sessions, and iv played pretty much on every one of my days off. And iv actualy been putting in quite long sessions which has encouraged me to play just MTT's. When i used to grind MTT's i was obsessed with volume, and at the start of a session i would register for the first 10 tourney's i could find and multi table like a mad man. Nowadays i think a better strategy is to concentrate on quality, with the games being a lot harder these days i find i really need to just concentrate on the games more to try and exploit people. And if you search the best players these days, hitthehole, jackellwood, moorman1, andy mfkn carlin, they only seem to grind 4 tables at once. So iv started doing this recently, i will register for four tourneys and if/when i bust one, il load up another. Its actually a lot of fun being able to get in some more tricky spots, and actually being able to think about hands, rather than just playing like a robot.
Iv started to have a little success too and managed to get my 2k starting bankroll up 3.7k,largely thanks to a 2nd place finish in a 3$ freeze out for 1.2k. I made 2 others finals last month, a 6th in a big ante's tourney and a 7th in the 5r (went from chip leader with 7 left to out in 7th due to some excellent spazzing out!) After saying earlier in the blog i was having trouble accumalating chips due to everybody playing so good, well the last month has been completely different, iv been running up some huge stacks in tourneys. Granted, iv spewed them all off, but hey-ho, thats the most fun part of the game!! Our backer/stable boss rewards the months highest profit earner a seat into the sunday millions. And last month i was lucky enough to be this person, largely due to the fact andy carlin didnt grind much, otherwise he definatly would have won it. So il be grinding the sunday million sometime soon, hopefully il never have to play poker again after that :-)
In my last blog entry i said me and FarmerDave were going down to leeds to see some friends for a night out. Not sure if this trip could have went any worse!! I woke up at around midday with a slight pain in my stomach, but considering i more than likely had a curry the night before, this wasnt much to worry about. It wasnt until i started the drive at around 2pm that this pain got worse, and became very close to unbareable. We stopped off at the first 5 service stations on the journey so i could have a walk around and try and shift the pain but nope, it wouldnt go. I actually ended throwing up everything inside of me in some disgusting toilet somewhere near Scotch Corner. The pain had actually started to move down my body, and felt like it was coming out of my right testical. As you can imagine my head was full of thoughts, testicular cancer, aids, diabetes, and how on earth was i going to pull in leeds with a bollock missing (no change there though to be honest). So Dave was trying to keep me talking as i started panicking, (Dave actually had to take over driving too due to the pain) and we made our way straight to St James' hospital in Leeds. I kind of waddle over to the desk, two pretty nice young girls to my left, and a group of pretty rough looking Chavs standing behind me. "whats the problem Sir?" ask's the nurse. Marvelous. Iv never heard sniggering like it. Anyway, i do some blood tests/urine sample and the doctor tells me iv got a water infection, weight of my mind, i get to keep both testicals!! He gives me some painkillers and anti-biotics,which actually started to work quickly and the pain went down a bit. We got to the hospital at 4.15 and didnt get out into the Leeds till about 11pm. Obviously i shouldnt have went out with my problem/being full of drugs but i needed a few pints/jaegerbombs/sambuca's/cocktails after the few hours id had! Anyway, the infection cleared up after a few days and im back to full health (as close as my lazy arse can be anyway) and i still have both bollocks intact. I now appreciate my testicals.
Thanks for reading,
Buzzzzz
The last couple of weeks iv actually started to put in a few sessions, and iv played pretty much on every one of my days off. And iv actualy been putting in quite long sessions which has encouraged me to play just MTT's. When i used to grind MTT's i was obsessed with volume, and at the start of a session i would register for the first 10 tourney's i could find and multi table like a mad man. Nowadays i think a better strategy is to concentrate on quality, with the games being a lot harder these days i find i really need to just concentrate on the games more to try and exploit people. And if you search the best players these days, hitthehole, jackellwood, moorman1, andy mfkn carlin, they only seem to grind 4 tables at once. So iv started doing this recently, i will register for four tourneys and if/when i bust one, il load up another. Its actually a lot of fun being able to get in some more tricky spots, and actually being able to think about hands, rather than just playing like a robot.
Iv started to have a little success too and managed to get my 2k starting bankroll up 3.7k,largely thanks to a 2nd place finish in a 3$ freeze out for 1.2k. I made 2 others finals last month, a 6th in a big ante's tourney and a 7th in the 5r (went from chip leader with 7 left to out in 7th due to some excellent spazzing out!) After saying earlier in the blog i was having trouble accumalating chips due to everybody playing so good, well the last month has been completely different, iv been running up some huge stacks in tourneys. Granted, iv spewed them all off, but hey-ho, thats the most fun part of the game!! Our backer/stable boss rewards the months highest profit earner a seat into the sunday millions. And last month i was lucky enough to be this person, largely due to the fact andy carlin didnt grind much, otherwise he definatly would have won it. So il be grinding the sunday million sometime soon, hopefully il never have to play poker again after that :-)
In my last blog entry i said me and FarmerDave were going down to leeds to see some friends for a night out. Not sure if this trip could have went any worse!! I woke up at around midday with a slight pain in my stomach, but considering i more than likely had a curry the night before, this wasnt much to worry about. It wasnt until i started the drive at around 2pm that this pain got worse, and became very close to unbareable. We stopped off at the first 5 service stations on the journey so i could have a walk around and try and shift the pain but nope, it wouldnt go. I actually ended throwing up everything inside of me in some disgusting toilet somewhere near Scotch Corner. The pain had actually started to move down my body, and felt like it was coming out of my right testical. As you can imagine my head was full of thoughts, testicular cancer, aids, diabetes, and how on earth was i going to pull in leeds with a bollock missing (no change there though to be honest). So Dave was trying to keep me talking as i started panicking, (Dave actually had to take over driving too due to the pain) and we made our way straight to St James' hospital in Leeds. I kind of waddle over to the desk, two pretty nice young girls to my left, and a group of pretty rough looking Chavs standing behind me. "whats the problem Sir?" ask's the nurse. Marvelous. Iv never heard sniggering like it. Anyway, i do some blood tests/urine sample and the doctor tells me iv got a water infection, weight of my mind, i get to keep both testicals!! He gives me some painkillers and anti-biotics,which actually started to work quickly and the pain went down a bit. We got to the hospital at 4.15 and didnt get out into the Leeds till about 11pm. Obviously i shouldnt have went out with my problem/being full of drugs but i needed a few pints/jaegerbombs/sambuca's/cocktails after the few hours id had! Anyway, the infection cleared up after a few days and im back to full health (as close as my lazy arse can be anyway) and i still have both bollocks intact. I now appreciate my testicals.
Thanks for reading,
Buzzzzz
Tuesday 13 September 2011
Eggheads
As the majority of people will now, i am very proud member of the Walkers Sensations. A few months ago, our team captain Dave "the stud" Mount applied for the lads to go on the BBC quizshow "Eggheads". Fast forward a little while and theres 5 of us heading down to Manchester for an audition. Papa Walker picks up myself, Dave, Aryan and Sensh at around 6.30am and we fly off in Walker's speed machine. We get there in pretty good time, and Sensh has only shouted at 3 "sluts" on the way down. We get asked about 7 or 8 general knowledge quiz questions, and we answer only 1 correct. Awesome Team. But its ok, because according to the extremely fit girl answering the questions, it was all about the 5 minute team interview. We had to answer questions about each other and the team on camera, and i think this went pretty well, we were all pretty confident infront of camera so fingers crossed that we should recive a call asking us to go on the show. Also, if we do get on the show, the BBC covers our expenses and travel, so its going to be one hell of a pissup thanks to all you TV lisence payers :-)
Also this week, me and Dave are heading down to leeds at the weekend to meet some of our friends down there and have a night out. Should be fun. However, this again means that my poker volume levels will be down - SHOCK. I dont mind this though, as of course id rather be doing fun things with my spare time. Id be much more pissed off with myself if i was sitting around the house doing nothing when i could be grinding.
Last week i played 3 MTT sessions where i regged up at 7pm and played around a 10 shedual game per night, costing aound $150 each. Feel i played pretty dam well in the most part, and ran up some massive stacks in the $3r 40k GTD, $5 2r1a 35k gtd. But as quick as these stacks i ran up, i was just as fast to spew them back off. I did however manage to come 5th in a small MTT for around $400 bucks, where i got pretty unlucky on the FT. I was big chip leader with 6 left, and then lost 1010 vs q9, AA vs QQ, AJ vs A10 and then my exit i bricked with a flush draw. All against the same person too, who of course went on to win. Never mind, i finished the 3 day grind about 200$ up, and my $2000 starting roll for jambeyang is up to around $2500. Slowly but surely its going in the right direction!! (wish i could run like AndyCarlin)
thanks,
Buzzzzz
Also this week, me and Dave are heading down to leeds at the weekend to meet some of our friends down there and have a night out. Should be fun. However, this again means that my poker volume levels will be down - SHOCK. I dont mind this though, as of course id rather be doing fun things with my spare time. Id be much more pissed off with myself if i was sitting around the house doing nothing when i could be grinding.
Last week i played 3 MTT sessions where i regged up at 7pm and played around a 10 shedual game per night, costing aound $150 each. Feel i played pretty dam well in the most part, and ran up some massive stacks in the $3r 40k GTD, $5 2r1a 35k gtd. But as quick as these stacks i ran up, i was just as fast to spew them back off. I did however manage to come 5th in a small MTT for around $400 bucks, where i got pretty unlucky on the FT. I was big chip leader with 6 left, and then lost 1010 vs q9, AA vs QQ, AJ vs A10 and then my exit i bricked with a flush draw. All against the same person too, who of course went on to win. Never mind, i finished the 3 day grind about 200$ up, and my $2000 starting roll for jambeyang is up to around $2500. Slowly but surely its going in the right direction!! (wish i could run like AndyCarlin)
thanks,
Buzzzzz
Monday 29 August 2011
catch up
I began grinding again in the middle of July, only playing once or twice per week, and its now coming to the end of August. When i started i was given a $2000 bankroll, and was told i am allowed to play anything (within reason) under $25 buy-ins. When i started, i was playing a couple of MTT's alongside 180 man turbo's and 45 mans. But as the weeks have progressed, iv moved over more to concentrating on the $7 and $15 18 man turbo SNG's. I just feel a lot more comfortable playing these, and theoretically they should have less varience to cope with as of course they have a lot less players than the 180 mans. I also feel they are slightly less full of experienced grinders, and i also feel that the grinders who are 20 tabling, actualy play these pretty awful. Certainly around the bubble and when shorthanded i think they play far too tight, they dont shove wide enough, are more than happy to give people walks, and dont call nearly wide enough when im shoving pretty much any 2 BVB. Although not a great sample size as yet, i have played 160 of these games, and have made just under 400$ profit (plus a very small amount of rakeback through bonus'). Of course this win rate isnt maintainable, but id like to think i could consistantly make around $1.50 per game, and being able to play around 15 per hour, its a pretty nice income. I prefer playing these in sets, IE, i will register for 15 at once, and play them all out to a finish before registering for any more. Of course, this means volume will not be as high, however, i think it improves my win rate, because when coming down to the more important part of the final table when short handed, being able to concentrate better means making the correct decision, which of course is easier to do when you are not playing 15 games at once. Id like to think i can motivate myself to play somewhere between 10-12 sets per week, so this is what im looking to achieve over the coming weeks.
I have also played around 70 or 80 MTT's, with a small loss of around $120. When i first started playing again, i felt very rusty, and wasnt playing well at all. I really think the standard of play in online MTT's has drastically improved over the last couple of years, even at the micro stakes. Obviously at the start of an MTT, there are a few fish, but as soon as you reach the middle stages/later stages, everybody seems to play pretty decent. I actually found it pretty disheartening that my usuall style (which is pretty agro) wasnt really working as players have now found the ability to play back at me, and not just folding pre or check folding flops. I went pretty deep in the $5 2r 1a tourney, and was chip leader with 16 left but managed to bust 14th. It's ok, i didnt really want to win the $6k anyway. I sharkscoped every player with 16 left, and all bar 2 players were pretty much MTT grinders and had good profits over good samples sizes. No money in MTT's, everybody is solid!! Incidently it was one of the players i labled as a fish that ended up busting me :-)
Now moving slightly away from poker, im one of those people who needs to listen to music when i grind, mainly to help concetration to stop the complete boredom from creeping in. I have a pretty strange taste in music for a 21 year old, If somebody asks me what i like, i instantly say Rod Stewart, Elvis, The Eagles, David Bowie mixed in with some excellent 80's power ballads (and a soft spot for Robson and Jerome). None of that modern shite. Over the last week when iv been grinding/driving in my car, i have listened to nothing but The Beautiful South and Fleetwood Mac. I seem to have ran pretty good this week, so maybe id advise you all to do the same!!
Also, got a couple of nights out planned this week. It is Jamie Giles 20th tonight so we're all going out tonight for a classy night out [ ]. And a friend of mine who has been in Newcastle all summer goes home to Huddersfield at the weekend, so gonna go out to say bye to her. This will be a lot more classy than Jamie Giles night out [ ].
Thanks for reading.
Buzzzzz
I have also played around 70 or 80 MTT's, with a small loss of around $120. When i first started playing again, i felt very rusty, and wasnt playing well at all. I really think the standard of play in online MTT's has drastically improved over the last couple of years, even at the micro stakes. Obviously at the start of an MTT, there are a few fish, but as soon as you reach the middle stages/later stages, everybody seems to play pretty decent. I actually found it pretty disheartening that my usuall style (which is pretty agro) wasnt really working as players have now found the ability to play back at me, and not just folding pre or check folding flops. I went pretty deep in the $5 2r 1a tourney, and was chip leader with 16 left but managed to bust 14th. It's ok, i didnt really want to win the $6k anyway. I sharkscoped every player with 16 left, and all bar 2 players were pretty much MTT grinders and had good profits over good samples sizes. No money in MTT's, everybody is solid!! Incidently it was one of the players i labled as a fish that ended up busting me :-)
Now moving slightly away from poker, im one of those people who needs to listen to music when i grind, mainly to help concetration to stop the complete boredom from creeping in. I have a pretty strange taste in music for a 21 year old, If somebody asks me what i like, i instantly say Rod Stewart, Elvis, The Eagles, David Bowie mixed in with some excellent 80's power ballads (and a soft spot for Robson and Jerome). None of that modern shite. Over the last week when iv been grinding/driving in my car, i have listened to nothing but The Beautiful South and Fleetwood Mac. I seem to have ran pretty good this week, so maybe id advise you all to do the same!!
Also, got a couple of nights out planned this week. It is Jamie Giles 20th tonight so we're all going out tonight for a classy night out [ ]. And a friend of mine who has been in Newcastle all summer goes home to Huddersfield at the weekend, so gonna go out to say bye to her. This will be a lot more classy than Jamie Giles night out [ ].
Thanks for reading.
Buzzzzz
Sunday 21 August 2011
Welcome to my Blog!
O.K my name is Neil Harvey but I’m mostly known as "buzz" due to a slight resemblance to the Toy Story character. I am 21 years old and from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Currently I work 3 nights a week in a casino which helps pays my rent, food (quite a large expense in my life) and beer. I learnt to play poker properly during my second year at college when I was 18 and I followed the same route as many people, a couple of local tourneys per week and got hooked. I then started to grind the live cash games around Newcastle, and somehow, without being very good at all I managed to make a decent amount of money, leading to me quitting my part time job at Morrison's and becoming a "professional" poker play if you like. I use that term very loosely, as for the 18 months that I was a "pro" nothing about me at all was professional. I jumped from game to game, MTT's to cash, live to online, without putting any serious volume in at all. Thanks to a couple of rather large binks (for an 18-19 year old) it didn’t matter as I had enough money to cover what I wanted to do in life - nothing. However, doing nothing is still bloody expensive, even when you’re still living at home with your parents, and my bankroll soon started to become pretty small, and I grew more and more frustrated with the game, which is the reason why I have hardly played over the last 6-9 months.
In this time, I decided to try and grow up a little bit by moving out of my family home for the first time and living with 3 very good friends of mine. Obviously I could not finance this with no income so I had to get a job, which I did at Circus Casino. The job itself is fairly easy and I get paid enough to comfortably cover rent/bills, and with only working 3 nights a week, I have plenty time left over to do what I want – nothing.
Anyway, to the point of this blog. I’m now beginning to feel like I want to start grinding again, and actually doing it properly this time. I have played a few sit and go/MTT sessions over the last couple of weeks, and I have actually quite enjoyed myself, and I also feel my temperament is a lot better than it used to be. So I feel as though I have a little bit of hunger inside me to play a decent amount of volume, and I’d like to use this blog to keep track of my progress, and also to hopefully motivate me to play more. I also hope I can keep this blog entertaining with a few stories from the flat and my life in general.
I have a very good staking deal with two absolutely superb Online MTT players “jambeyang” and “thawright” who are total sicko’s, and I feel are going to be a huge asset in improving my game further. I will mainly be playing multi table sit and goes, 18 mans and 45 mans, and also I’d like to play 1 full MTT schedule per week. I’m going to try and aim to play somewhere between 125-150 games per week. Now, this doesn’t seem like huge volume, but I will only be playing on my days off work, and all going well, it will serve as a second income to me. I will be playing on pokerstars under the very creative screen name of “neilharvey22”.
Thanks you for reading my first post, hopefully it won’t be so boring in the future!!
Buzz
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