King, well not really, but doing ok...

King, well not really, but doing ok...

Hopefully if your reading this, then you may know me from the local poker scene in Newcastle. This is going to be my first blog entry, and if u do know me from NPS, or NPF you will know I have already gained a reputation for long and rambling posts, so be warned.

My real name is Andy Blair, my NPF alias KQ4EVA, and if you want anymore general background I suggest u go read the interview I did with Dan Trett, which he has up on the fulltrett poker blog.

Ok so I first thought about blogging just bf Xmas, and I was gonna do an account of my online year, but never got around to it, then I thought about a new year goals blog but never got around to it. I also considered a blog post about some of the mixed online games including a bit of strategy, oh and then a month or so in to this year I considered an entry about how I was running live, cos I was and am running and playing ok, but well I aint got around to it so far. So all these thoughts and none of them materialised into an actual write up so far, cos well I am a bit lazy basically, there u have it - I put things off. I procrastinate and this is not just with blogging, but many things, even poker. I mean theres so many times I was going to schedule my poker week ahead and so many times the next week was going to be so much more structured, well none of that has ever happened either. So perhaps I will just need to accept I wont ever be right on top of things, organised, scheduled, ahead of that same schedule. Sometimes u just have to recognise what kind of person u are and if your not the organised regimented type, well of course u could try and change, but u could just accept that your the rambling, flit from one thing to another type and that will just have to do.

Wow this rambling is very evident isnt it, I havent even begun to get close to explaining "King well not really" as a title. Perhaps I have begun to touch upon the not really bit, I.E the lack of organisation, the putting things off and so on part. OK I will cover some of the things I mentioned I had always intended to blog about in just some scant detail, to get things going and then I want to talk a little about live poker as a way forward or not.


My Online Year in short.

I could do cliff note style, but hey I dont do short really. I think in a thread I used a quote I believe was from Thomas Eddison the inventor, when discussing his progress on something he was working on. He said "I have not failed, I have simply found 10000 ways which do not work" My online year in 2010 has been a little like that, I tried pretty much every format of poker, game types, number of mans, speeds, gimmick tourneys - whatever I tired it. I am not talking about half a dozen games mind - I try things for at least a reasonable number of goes to workout if I like it, or can be profitable at it. My year wasnt a failure overall, but I guess one of discovery would be a fairer description. The discovery that I wont ever be a heads up specialist, I played in excess of 1500 matches for a very small profit, but simply isnt for me. I wont be a superturbo rake grinder, again I played several thousand of these at all levels and made profit below $50 BIS, but a similar size loss above this level, I raked some points and again decided its not going to be my thing. I played 9 mans in the beginning of year and made some small profits over maybe 5k of games, this has been a bread and butter format over many years, and perhaps my single biggest earner career wise, but I am just tired of them and I cant see me playing many many thousands of them going forward. I played some mixed games and razz etc, and thats been a real revelation for me, in fact my biggest single profitable format of year with over 10k in online profits from this format over a reasonable but not huge sample. I played 18 mans for a breakeven spell of about 1k of games. I played 45 mans for a small loss. I played a sample of just over 1k of 180 mans for around 5.5k profit so this another discovery as I actually quite enjoy these and have been profitable too over a smallish sample. I played all the usual large field small and medium BI mtts for a little above breakeven, but with no super big score.

Ok to summarize a little, I had a profitable year online to the tune of just short of 22k on all sites, all play, add back some bonuses cleared, rakeback and u get above 25k, take off some profits to stakers from a deal I entered in back end of year and your back to pretty much 23k. I discovered razz and horse, ruled out some formats for the longterm, and I also like and think I may concentrate on multi table sngs like 180s and 18s in parts of this year. Meh it was a good year in many senses but also a frustrating one where I never really broke through so to speak, but what can u expect when your not very organised, u put things off, and u spend just as much time browsing and on the forum and reading other ppls poker blogs as u do working on your game and playing your game. I am a better player now to 12 months ago, and have some degree of knowledge about things I definitely dont want to specialise in and things I might like to do more of. So thats a success - Yes !

Goals For 2011

Well I didnt write them up properly - I did post on the thread at forum but I was going to do a poker plan with everything in it, but guess what I didnt do it.

This year though I want to find a format I can call my bread and butter online earner.

This might come from 18 mans or 180s I feel.

I want to have a successful live year, better than last year. I made 7k clear profit last year live after all deduction of expenses - I hope to at least double that this year.

I want to still be enjoying my poker, and make more friends through the game, forum, live and online

I think that will do for me, as its no point me writing a load of garbage I really have no likelihood of sticking to.

My Start to this Year

Well this is actually where the title started out - King (a play on my alias KQ) signifying I rule the poker world... Erm well cleary the not really has to follow VERY QUICKLY as I am writing this I have just as many of u will have done followed the exploits of a certain Gareth Walkaaa and his super fantastic, mega awesome bink at UKIPT Notts. So he is king, but I have had a pretty tidy start to my year both live and online and I think its ok to be happy about ones own start to year, whilst at same time realising it pales to what he has managed to achieve. The funny thing about poker and dont say it isnt true of you (your just lieing to yourself) is that whilst u are definitely pleased to see a local come good, one part of u cant help but wish it was u that made that breakthrough score. I think Scotty said congrats and so jealous, well jealous is an emotion we dont like to admit too, but have to agree with Scotty here - over the moon for u Gaz, wish it was me, u and brett though all fighting it out for those three top spots ...

I have played alot live since turn of year, simply because I have been enjoying it, and playing and running pretty well. In the first five weeks of year I made 10 live FTS and got various chops, and even an outright win to make cashes of £4.2k on the local casino scene, this from around 1k of bis. This bf I also decided to play UKIPT Notts and so u can add 1.68k to cashes and another £560 to the bis column, still leaving a healthy profit form well a month and a half in live play. I also played some but by no means any significant volume online, and mainly because of a few early in the year razz fts, I am in profit to tune of $2.5k online in the same period.

Live Play

I mentioned live play and wanting to talk about it more, and I could do u a full ukipt notts tourney report, but it would be sufficient to summarize as folded a hell of alot, made a handful of good plays to keep my stack alive, got outplayed a few times, made a couple of bad moves and having never ever really been in contention exited the tourney in a very std way when shoving a small pair into a slightly larger pair. I played ok I felt, not brilliant, but it was good experience and my first large BI, deep structure so to out last 1000 others some of whom are top top players and to cash has to be something to look back at and say u did ok. So to live in general I am really starting to get confident in my game, hopefully not over confident, but certainly to the point where I feel free to play my A game fairly regularly. I am not by any means the best local live player, but I am gaining a reputation as at least someone who is tricky and difficult to play against, and it appears through various threads, and local banter I am getting a "He runs so Good tag too" - Thats all gotta be good for me and my local live chances wouldn't u say ?

So to end this first post - gosh your thinking at last .... I plan on playing circus tonight for the Tuesday 20/20, and hope to see some of u there. I am King, well king queen actually, Gaz is King. I am playing and running good, and entering another year that I hope is a very successful one for me, and most importantly an enjoyable one, cos whats the point if its not. GL at the tables All..

Feedback appreciated, maybe I will blog more if u want it, maybe this is my swan song if u dont - please let me know..