Wow. looks like im finally going to earn some serious money this year afterall. The last month or so has been immense, not sure why but my reads are cushdie and the games have got soft. The new betfair account is golden is appears and the number of idiots on ladbrokes is insane. I think the main reason my results have got so much better is a little more balance, not playing mtts at all anymore, well, sometimes sundays and also bouncing ideas about with my students/mates. I always think how odd it is when you look back at your game say 1 year ago and compare it to what you know now, realise you were a complete spewmonkey and that now you are faaaar better. Does this happen every year? Do you reach a peak or does brunson still laugh at himself for getting involved in 3bet pots with 102o?

Off to Bali with the missus soon, then gonna pop over to vienna for a few days then get back in time for the DTD monte carlo thing, which im gonna win. I really should play a few more of the better live comps, but the harsh reality is they just aint that worthwhile unless the buyin is biggish, field soft and i feel good. Trying to be more professional and look at hourly has left me feeling kinda elated and embarassed. My hourly this year across all sites for cash is substantial. Why my work ethic was so bad i dont know. I guess i can blame moving (1 month+) and blackbelt grading (1month) partly for the lacklustre start to the year, but comparing myself and the hands im putting in to people like alex bowler and clarkatriod and it really hammers home the different requirement in attitude you need to go from a nice standard of living to making chunks.

Been watching 2m2m and i thought it was pretty decent. Brain Hastings voice does go right through me and Emil comes across as a kinda detatched gimp, the last episode when his PA is packing his bags while hes sat on the bed, i swear i could have shipped that euromillions on friday for 56 superdimes and wouldnt be able to be so cold and (it looked) demeaning. Its embarassing, leave the room while shes working....TBH krantz seemed ok but uhoa and ansky was probably the best of the bunch. Hastings voice and AE jones come across really badly. Interestingly, i always liked leggo's strategy segments on 2+2 poddies, but having seen the guy and how he reacted to an argument about reverse implied odds or some shit all i could think was my god what a twat. Thing is you can argue just about anything in poker, there is always a different answer for any different hand, which is why iv been thinking a lot about balancing lately. It seems to me that a lot of reasonable grinders dont understand this point about balancing v regs and going for max exploitation v fish. All they do is go max exploitation v everyone and fuck themselves over by, for example, never showing up with a bluff when they river CR. Dont get me wrong, im grateful, but its gonna be a while before the floodgates open in online poker again and in that 4/5 year gap learning to beat tougher players will be the biggest challenge. With that in mind i was thinking about the whole Akenhead fiasco, how th fuck can u final the wsope main, wsop main and the million. Literally such a huge sick achievement and got me thinking what do i want to do/be eventually. Tbh i think i lack the right ambition, im really not interested in tournament prowess and all the jazz. Maybe ill have to have a crack at it one day, just not right now :)

Hi ppl, not much to report, been grinding my tits off, took some shots higher but they didnt workout too well. Nevermind. Going well with my students now, Stijn in particular seems to be super smart and will go really far in the game i think, just started with Pat but signs look promising, found a little goldmine new site too, which is awesome.

Pippa is doing well, growing quite fast i think, cant wait till shes big enough to take out as i can see her getting frustrated being restricted to the house and garden. Not long now before we go after those rats pips!

Gonna post on here that im taking on 1 more student in December (already got my other lined up), my rates have gone up a little as the exchange rate/ my portfolio is stronger, but email me at alexander_martin@hotmail.co.uk if you want 200-400nl coaching. I only take guys for a 4 week schedule, putting in 5/6 hours a week to really get ideas flowing, impart some thought process. I cant justify coaching higher as my winrate is super mediocre (3bb/100), but im 11bb/100 for 200nl this year playing a redline winrate/ blueline flatline 26/21/3 style.

WSOPE, played the 1k friday, was a fun comp, as i find trip reports pretty boring to read i wont write one. All ill say is, Ian Frazer wasnt the tv donkey i expected him to be, Huck Seed was incredibly rude, French and Italian people are still at the top of my favourite nationalities to play poker against list and in general live poker is still super soft. Had a fun tournament, met all the usual suspects, thanks to Kerry Taylor for an unwarranted and very generous late night lift home, grats to JP on making the second hurdle on the way to his nickname manifestation and fair play to the organisers in not joining the 10k starting chips brigade. Was fun and deepish the whole way through. I think i busted 65th/700 odd with 62 getting paid or something. Not much i could do with 88 and 17bb, apart from win a flip v AK 1 time all tournament. Think that was the telling part tbh, i think i got outplayed twice, lost 3 coinflips, lost 2 30/70's and held twice as a 70/30. Thats my tournament report. Sigh.

Getting the dog tomorrow, hopefully she wont go chewing through cables and stuff as im running quite good at the moment and could use some consistency. As usual i speak to most of the circuit regs at one time or another at these things and am consistently amazed by how much fucking money they all make. Toasty life. Nobody loses?

Wanting to get a bit more of a spark in my game as i think its getting a little tired, so im taking on two students from 2+2 for 200nl coaching. Think its a pretty good deal for them plus hopefully ill be able to build my portfolio as a coach, plus another revenue stream is fine by me. Some of these coaches charge up to $300 an hour for 200nl coaching, which i understand is probably justified, but i seemed to get a hell of a lot of response after graphing this years results and charging $60/h. Hopefully ill get the 2 guys i want, iv generally found the people that are most keen to do anything are the most enjoyable to spend time with at said activity, so with a little luck ill form up some good relationships and help them make more money.

As it stands im writing a piece for insidepoker on how to exploit shortstacks at midstakes on a cold evening on my own in my glorified shed. :( At least tomorrow ill have my dog as company. Im turning into a sad git. :P

And its time again for your quarterly update. I am now officially in our new house, wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Starting to feel like home, but i wonder just how long that really takes? The place looks the absolute bollocks, had a housewarming last weekend with a really good turnout, thanks to all of you that came (especially those of you that left me with loads of beer). I had a great time, burning food, seeing freinds, then obviously getting absolutely blotted with one of my equally best mates, Sebastion mfkin Gray. Was good catching up w the old Doctor, also great to see mates from uni Matt plus especially Al, plus the usual suspects.

Starting to get a bit of a routine, which is quite nice. I dont use the car basically at all anymore, as everyhing is walking distance. Gonna get rid of the old banger soon and get a bike too, might aswell be a bit greener if im gonna rabbit on about it. Im a perfect hypocrite (sp?). Going to the gym daily now (as its only 200 yards away), plus running daily over the common (although secretly i sell it to the dark side of my brain as "fishing reconnaisance missions" as i run tight to the lower river lee, where the chub are gargantuan but there are rumours of big barbel in the weirpool, ill be having a go as soon as we get some heavy rain.....) Not had a cigarette sober in like 6 weeks now, did have a few at the housewarming when we went to Hertford, but tbh i was smashed and i crumble after drink. Enjoying playing poker in the shed, connection isnt amazing though, probably cost me about $300 this week so far in DC's, which is annoying, but iv got the best equipment/service we can recieve, so ill have to build a bridge (and get over it obv, i dont have a clue about actually bridging wireless networks).

Poker been decent of late, iv really lacked focus so taken a decision to play 200nl for a couple of weeks to get hungry again. I kind of get desensitised to big pots sometimes playing higher and its not good for MY game, as this leads to longer term destabilistation of my usual level mindset, which leads ultimately, to monkey tilt. Had some decent online results for $4k and $8k respectively, which is always a nice little bonus. Im massively off target for the year, but thats partly due to the Blackbelt fiasco and a long drawnout house renovation (that admittedly i have minimal involvement with) and the move itself, which was easier than i though (coz my missus when shes in a good mood is a diamond and did so much to ease the passage).

Looks like marc Goodwin just came 2nd in the Barca EPT which must be pretty gutting. I mean i know hes just shipped mad dimes, but he really should have won an international major like this in the last few years, everyone i speak to has commentated on how good his game has got. I dont know him, but wp, ul. I do wonder if he netted enough to payoff Ivey on that little golf game though..........

Lots of stuff coming up in London soon, and im deffo gonna play at least some of it. Really like the look of the 6max ept side event and probably gonna swerve that £1k crapshoot @wsope, might try some satellites to the biggy however, even though im -5k in wsop/e qualifications. Which is ridiculous (unless i ship the next time or 2, or is it??..?). Much better ways to spend money and we owe a fair bit of red paper, so will prbably have to put a dent in that before getting involved in gukpt stuff again.

Played some WCOOP stuff this week, continuously amazed at just how soft therse fields are. Particularly piss off about running terrible in the 4max and a big annoyed i lost 99 v A9s with 1/4 field left for ok chips. Nevermind. If i could have a piss break when i wanted, i think id play more of these mtt's, the player quality is astonishingly bad compared to what i normally encounter. So probs gonna play some donkaments (gg flushy) the next couple of weeks, probably selling some and playing a shit load of 200nl, till i feel ready to take on 600nl Euro on ladbrokes again, which im doing my reg homework on (thanks Dan Rudd). Will be nice to get into the fight with sick knowledge about my opponents and them not having a scooby about me.

Will post again on the weekend, with a couple of rants about things that are pissing me off in the world, plus some photos of MY HOUSE! later

Boring week. Worked long hours, won some huge pots and ultimately won nothing. Just didnt book enough wins and wait till the next day. Particularly annoying is when i run good and win like 2-3k in 30 mins, i feel compelled to stay for marathon sessions when eventually some monkey (normally tevje) does something which tilts me and i spew a load of money back. sigh. Moving into my house tomorrow, 90% of the stuff has been moved, the amazing oak flooring is down and i cant wait to get in to be honest, its gonna be phenomenal.

Went today to put the deposit down on my border terrier, she is an absolute beauty! only 3 weeks old and about 6 inches long, suzanne took 1 look at her and it was good game £500. To be honest i was equally smitten, we are calling her Pippa and getting here in 4 weeks time, ill write a long post then, suffice to say we saw her mum, dad and grandfather who are all stunning. The breeder has bred them slightly smaller (the line was formed orignally many years ago for hunting badgers in Scotland) and the grandfather in particular was incredibly handsome with a long bushy beard. They have amazing energy although they do have a slightly disturbing tendency to fight viciously with each other (like proper go at it and kill each other) so we will have to be very mindful obviously. The responsibility is kinda unnerving, god knows what its like to have a kid. I cant wait to take her out to be honest, do a bit of ratting with her and maybe a bit of long-netting if the rabbit population on our local shoot stays too bouyant.

Back on to poker, so a shit week in all, probably not playing too good over too many tables and also not abusing tag's pain thresholds enough, like if im gonna cr bluff the turn on a scary board and think that most of the time he cant call a river shove, dont bottle the fucking river. Also, a lot of work/life stuff has impacted on my focus, which needs to be good because without fail the games are getting tougher.

Anyway, here is one of the best hands i played all week, purely because it was a slightly complex puzzle, given i knew i was probably beating the shorty but that twojacks likely had tp with a better kicker or an overpair. Its not that interesting tbh, but at the time i was like wow i wonder if that did just happen and i got a hybrid bet to work perfectly in a multiway pot..... I decided against flatting the shorty on the turn because that would probably end up getting damascus commited by the river, so elected to bluff one guy with a superstrong line and valuebet/protect against another. Fun hand anyways. In reality twojacks probably had air anyways, but i tricked myself into being convinced id made him fold QQ, purely for ego.


** Hand # 2804942948 starting - 2009-08-30 06:44:53
** Cynwit [Hold 'em] (1.00|2.00 NL - Cash Game) Real Money

twojacks2 sitting in seat 1 with €250.90[Dealer]
damaskus169 sitting in seat 2 with €92.33
_HaMmerHead_ sitting in seat 3 with €386.90
NOB sitting in seat 4 with €0.00
Manix1983 sitting in seat 5 with €116.05
playeur1980 sitting in seat 6 with €568.15
damaskus169 posted the small blind - €1.00
_HaMmerHead_ posted the big blind - €2.00

** Dealing cards to _HaMmerHead_: Jh, 9h
Manix1983 folded
playeur1980 called - €2.00
twojacks2 raised to €6.00
damaskus169 called - €6.00
_HaMmerHead_ called - €6.00
playeur1980 folded

** Dealing the flop: Jd, 8s, 4h
damaskus169 checked
_HaMmerHead_ checked
twojacks2 bet - €10.00
damaskus169 called - €10.00
_HaMmerHead_ called - €10.00

** Dealing the turn: 4d
damaskus169 bet - €24.00
_HaMmerHead_ raised to €60.00
twojacks2 folded
damaskus169 called - €60.00

** Dealing the river: 9d
damaskus169 went all-in - €16.33
_HaMmerHead_ called - €16.33
damaskus169 shows: 6c, 8h
_HaMmerHead_ shows: Jh, 9h
_HaMmerHead_ wins €199.66 from the main pot

Rake: €3.00

Lol. This game is pretty funny at times. Still running pretty hot, despite tilting a little yesterday night versus Tevje the mother of all luckboxes i had a cracking session tonight. Really getting good at targeting fish/weak regs and getting in their heads, which u most def cant do on more than 4 tables. Moving in next WEDNESDAY WIIIIII and cant wait, although there is a pub either end of my road, which might cutdown on work ethic :P

Heres a funny hand from my session v a fish, i misread my hand and thought i had KJ, but i should just claim it as a hero call.

***** Hand History for Game 565690796 ***** (Betfair)
$500.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, August 22, 03:27:21 ET 2009
Table Nitrogen 158 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: JammyJenny ( $2178.07 USD )
Seat 2: rush88 ( $1219.64 USD )
Seat 3: wanabe ( $423.87 USD )
Seat 4: Fortknoxxx ( $522.00 USD )
Seat 5: suncrest ( $1181.71 USD )
Seat 6: oversleep ( $500.00 USD )
Fortknoxxx posts small blind [$2.50 USD].
suncrest posts big blind [$5.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to JammyJenny [ Qs Kc ]
oversleep folds
JammyJenny raises [$17.50 USD]
rush88 folds
wanabe folds
Fortknoxxx folds
suncrest calls [$12.50 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jc, 9s, 5s ]
suncrest bets [$40.00 USD]
JammyJenny calls [$40.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ]
suncrest bets [$60.00 USD]
JammyJenny raises [$165.00 USD]
suncrest raises [$1064.21 USD]
JammyJenny calls [$959.21 USD]
JammyJenny shows [Qs, Kc ]
suncrest shows [3d, Tc ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ks ]
JammyJenny wins $2362.92 USD from main pot

off tomorrow to see a man about a gun and visit my old nan. run good people.

Ok, gonna have a brag now. Just had my first ever massive (for me) week. After 15k hands of 1k and 500nl plus a donkament touch for 4k iv shipped $24k. I ran at 24bb/100 which is obviously completely unsustainable but fuckit ill just keep giving it my best every session. Really pleased with myself and feel like this is the turning point from msnl grinder to understanding and progressing to highstakes. Would like to say a big thankyou to Adam my running partner online and my mentor Manuel who has been incredibly supportive when times are bad aswell as good. This game can be a huge rollercoaster at times and im hopeful that this will be the start of things to come.