So I left the Blog at the end of Summer 2011, the start of my final year of my undergraduate course. As any graduate will tell you, the final year of your course is usually an absolute bitch, and mine was no exception. I had almost no time for poker, let alone blogging, and didn't put a lot of effort into studying and attempting to improve me game. I still had a winning year but I can only imagine how badly I was playing and how I ran good in a few select tournaments in order to turn that profit. I was picked up by a large backing stable however it wasn't the right fit. The stable had many full time mid to high stakes MTT grinders and news of my final-tabling a $5 turbo was often overshadowed by a stable mate going deep in a Sunday Major. We decided to part ways but on good term and I do wish them the best of luck in the future. I still see many of the grinders at the tables and, from what I can see, they are all still decent winners.
I took a short break after ending the backing deal to decide how I wanted to progress in Poker. Did I want to go alone or stay backed, did I want to stick to MTTs or start playing cash again, was I going to continue on Stars or move to softer Euro sites, etc. After a good bit of deliberation and speaking with various backers and stables I eventually chose a backing deal with Global Staking, a large backing group based in America. I decided that I felt far more comfortable playing on stake and what stood out about the deal was the inclusion of a personal tutor who I could work with. I find the one on one coaching sessions extremely helpful at erasing leaks in my own game and really highlights how I can improve.
Since then I have gone from strength to strength. I am currently having my best year yet results wise and am close to the goal I set myself at the beginning of the year of $25k profit on Pokerstars, largely in part thanks to the biggest score of my career to date, chopping the Hotter 11 as chip leader for $11k. I would have hit my goal very early had I not downswung in the Summer. I took my usual 3 months off to focus on exams and what followed was a lot of volume but with sub standard play. I got myself into a very large make up figure, especially considering the stakes I was playing but I managed to refocus, continue to study and grind my way back out of it. I always stress to players, downswings happen, the length of them depend on how hard you work. I was lucky enough to have a strong group of grinders around me for motivation as well as great coaching.
I have continued with my strategy of mixing in both NLHE and PLO8 MTTs but recently I have included PLO to the mix. My backing group stake a few PLO specialists and after a few months of learning the basics and observing their games, I decided to take a shot at it an I've found PLO to be very lucrative. By adding in these games and also the 5 card variants, I have drastically increased my overall ROI and now on OPR I am showing large profit in all games, excluding LHE but who cares about that lol. I am currently playing full time while I search for a career after graduating university so I normally play 5 days a week but will probably cut down to 2/3 once I'm employed.
I intend to update this blog a lot more regularly than I did before, mainly due to the fact I have a lot more time on my hands these days and thus less reasons not to write. And don't worry, future posts won't be as long. Hope you enjoyed reading and be sure to follow the blog. Later y'all.
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