One of the key areas I’ve been working on in my recent sessions has been eliminating distractions while I am playing. A few years ago, when I was at the peak of my game, I found it very easy to put in long hours without being distracted by things on my phone, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, browsing the web, looking at my hold ‘em manager or cashier all the time. In the last year as the games have become tougher and I’ve moved down stakes a bit I find myself getting bored and my work environment becomes filled with pointless noise that distracts me from playing my best.

I’ve taken 5 dramatic steps and I already feel way better about what I’m doing. They are as follows…

Stay Focusd Chrome Plug-in
An add-in for my web browser that stops me from visiting web pages for a certain amount of time. I set it to the length of my session and subsequently can’t sneak a look at Facebook/Twitter etc. while I play. If you play on a site that is tracked by PTR and you want to use it, you can add an exception so that you can use your browser for that function only. Stay Focusd Link

• Grind 100nl rest of month
• No looking at results until until end of month (get rid for esults/EV columns in HEM and use AHK to block cashier on Stars)
• Listen to Mental game podcasts
• Buy/read Mental Game book
• Write a short blog about confidence
• Develop some focus excercises
• Break zoom tables every two hours
• Review marked hands from previous session before resuming from break
• Review a regular per day
• Two sweats/reviews with LifeFish guys
• Review a hand (my own or from forum) everyday with a LifeFish
• Watch a few Ultimate Grinders free videos and decide if I want a membership
• Review these goals on May 1st and post another goals blog

Petteytheft was the only non-Aussie in the group and we had a lot of fun teaching him about cricket and other things culturally foreign to him. He played in the main event, made it to Day 2, but unfortunately busted. I also had the chance to meet Fantasticcow and sethsethseth, Cow managed to cash in the Main Event.

I teamed up with skelm to play in the teams event and LacieK paired with Newmanmi. Star City has a new poker room, but this event was played on the floor of the sports lounge, it was kind of like an arena. Together we nursed a 20bb stack pretty much from the 3rd level onwards, never really getting above that in chips, but just managing to slowly chip up each level. With about 20 teams out of 70 odd remaining with skelm playing we got a crucial double up with AA > KK. Then the pressure was on me heading into both the money and final table bubble with about an 18bb stack. Early in the level with 15 players remaining a guy who had about two big blinds less than us raised in MP and it folded to me in the big blind, I shoved AQ obviously and he thought for ages then called with AK, not really sure what he was thinking about there… No luck sucking out and the next hand our K5 couldn’t crack AQ and it was all over.

A pretty frustrating night in the end, I would much rather have just busted early, but I loved the format of having one blind level on one blind level off, it almost made live tournament poker bearable. We played 8 odd hours all for nothing though, the other two busted in the first few hours with KK < AA and were joined by Pettey after he busted the main event. We had a good solid sweat from them as they watched from the bar. It would have been nice to make the final table and take a shot at Joe Hachem and co. who were playing at the feature table all night.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was our park cricket game. We bought a cricket set and managed to find a decent spot to play in Hyde Park. Pettey had obviously never played before and the other guys hadn’t played any serious cricket for a good few years. The standard was actually pretty high though, Pettey proved to be an absolute natural, especially with his bowling and he played some marvellous on drives with the bat, Newman showed some freakish agility with a run out in the field and ponchoko was much better than he had let on beforehand. The best moment though was one of the craziest catches I’ve ever seen, the one-hand one bounce rule was in play when skelm’s friend Johnny spilled a sharp chance on the full at deep mid on, he recovered quickly, avoided a lamp post and did a forward roll as he grabbed it to take a brilliant one hander on the bounce.
Our final night was spent ordering pizza in, drinking and playing a small stakes mixed game cash game in our apartment. The game was unbelievably crazy, for instance I over called a shove pre with 22 in NLHE, got it in vs QJ and AK and held and there were a bunch of other crazy pots, it was a late night and a great way to end the trip.

Hopefully, I’ll be catching up with all the guys again in Vegas next year!

Full Tilt Poker $2/$4 No Limit Hold’em – 7 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (SB): $464.80
BB: $80.00
UTG: $69.00
UTG+1: $397.20
MP: $78.00
CO: $1733.90
BTN: $637.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is SB with J K
4 folds, BTN raises to $12, Hero raises to $48, 1 fold, BTN calls $36

Flop: ($100.00) T Q A (2 players)
Hero bets $74, BTN calls $74

Turn: ($248.00) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $112, BTN calls $112

River: ($472.00) T (2 players)
Hero bets $230.80 all in, BTN calls $230.80

Final Pot: $933.60
Hero shows J K (a Royal Flush)
BTN mucks A 7
Hero wins $930.60
(Rake: $3.00)

My venture into the world of live donkaments wasn’t really all that blogworthy, but I’ll share the details anyway. I basically ran completely card dead for the most part, and the times I did pick up hands they didn’t go so well. I never got above my starting stack of 5,000 and last about 5 or 6 levels. The first big hand I picked up was QQ utg, I raised and the button and big blind called. Flop came ace high (yay), I decided to c-bet and just try and take it down, the button insta-insta called, the big blind folded and I just check folded the turn and the button showed me an ace (like I didn’t know).

The next hand I picked up was TT, raised and got four callers obviously, just check-folded on a king high flop and the guy who bet showed his king. A couple of hands later I got AA on the button, of course it folds to the HJ who limps, I raise and everybody folds… great. So my stack is slowly dwindling, everytime I pick up a somehwat shoveable hand someone opens or theres and open and a re-raise. I pick up AQ in MP with about a 13 big blind stack, a guy who had been realtively tight and just had me covered shove in the seat before me. I was mulling over my decision when the guy behind me gets really excited and pre-maturely calls. I could just tell HE had a huge hand and witht he original shover being kind of tight I let it go. It ended up being 66 vs. QQ where the sixes sucked out so I dodged going broke there. It was just a painful process of folding folding folding until I eventually got it in with K9 vs. AK and couldn’t suck out.

Hui had a bit better time of it, he actually managed to run up a bit of a chip stack. His starting table had Joe Hachem at it as well as a start Australian Rules footballer. He managed to bluff Hachem in a hand where he flatted his raise with 55 on the button pre-flop and then bluff raised a T high flop. Hachem told him he laid down AT,  but who knows. Later on he got moved to a table with Dario Minieri and a few other big names and held his own. At the end of the day though he got bsuted out right near the end, which was probably more painful and annoying than what happened to me.

Overall, it was an itneresting experience, but as with whenever I play live it really makes me appreciate the online game. Live poker is just so freaking slow and incredibly tilting…. and yeah everyone knows how much donkaments suck. The level of play wasn’t all THAT terrible, I mean there was a lot of stupid shit going on like limping and guys flat calling for half their stack and then check/folding flops, but still tehre were some guys who seemed to have somewhat of an idea what they were doing.

December Goals
Passed With Flying Colours, Could Have Done Better, Failed
- Reach 600,000 PokerStars VPP Milestone
- Be at 593,000 VPPs by X-mas
- $3,000 of sports wagering at BetCRIS
- Repair my bike for the summer
- Finish Trustamate.com web site
- Finish Suburbanball.com web site
- Finish TiltDaily.com web site
– 4 Days a week at the gym
- Get 15 new sites on my blogroll
- Aim to average 80 page views a day

Today I managed to reach my 600,000 VPP target for the year and I’m officially no longer prisoner to PokerStars. Next year my target is going to be a lot lower, allowing me to play less and expand my horizons at other sites and away from poker a bit.

2009 Life Goals
- Buy a house
- Keep fit and healthy
- Plan for the future, figure out what I want to get out of life
- Join the Liberal Democratic Party
- Travel within Australia a little more

I had a few reservations about it all. Mainly that I would never sit at a $200nl table filled with 8 tough players and also that a lot of these guys usually 16-24 and cutting back to 4 or 6 is going to change their games a bit. I thought it would be an interesting experience and I might get something out of it though so I agreed to participate.

I wasn’t all that happy with how my video came out. I didn’t have all that many interesting spots, I was pretty card dead for a while there. The two big pots I played were when I had KK and Artanis11 had KK and also I feel like I made a bad call down with AK on an A9336 board when TehBluffman showed me quads. By the river it was just extremely unlucky he was bluffing or value shoving worse given the line he had a taken and me not looking like I was going to fold.

The highlight of the video was definitely this one, although it was close as there were a few other sick calls. This one is pretty amazing on every street really, I think Yada’s call out of the blinds is pretty loose, but I guess he had a plan to check/raise any flop. SubV’s instincts were correct on the flop, he knows Yada likes to check/raise so he decided to float. SubV decided that if he check-raised the flop light he’d probably barrel the turn and give up on the river I guess so he decided to call the turn planning to shove the river if checked to. It seems like Yada decided at the last minute that it felt like he was getting bluffed and made a pretty sick call.

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em – 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Artanis11 (CO): $206.00
ryanmack91 (BTN): $191.00
YaDaDaMeeN21 (SB): $240.00
ADZ122 (BB): $203.00
zachvac (UTG): $200.00
Coordi (UTG+1): $202.00
EurekaKid (UTG+2): $228.55
TehBluffman (MP1): $200.00
Subv (MP2): $224.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00)
4 folds, Subv raises to $6, 2 folds, YaDaDaMeeN21 calls $5, 1 fold

Flop: ($14.00) J T 6 (2 players)
YaDaDaMeeN21 checks, Subv bets $8, YaDaDaMeeN21 raises to $24, Subv calls $16

Turn: ($62.00) 6 (2 players)
YaDaDaMeeN21 bets $42, Subv calls $42

River: ($146.00) 5 (2 players)

YaDaDaMeeN21 checks, Subv bets $152 all in, YaDaDaMeeN21 calls $152

YaDaDaMeeN21 said, “lol”
YaDaDaMeeN21 said, “im gonna look like such an idiot”
YaDaDaMeeN21 said, “smells like qk so much”
YaDaDaMeeN21 said, “sigh”

Final Pot: $450.00
YaDaDaMeeN21 shows 5 7 (two pair, Sixes and Fives)
Subv shows 5 7 (two pair, Sixes and Fives)
YaDaDaMeeN21 wins $223.50
Subv wins $223.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Anyway, it was a fun experience and I thank the others for letting me be involved. Mayve we will be doing another one in the future, I don’t know.

November Goals
Passed With Flying Colours, Could Have Done Better, Failed
- Earn 65,000 VPPs
- Finish real estate investment book
- $3,000 of sports wagering at BetCRIS
- Repair my bike for the summer
- Take first wicket at cricket
- Start Trustamate.com web site
- Finish Suburbanball.com web site
- 4 Days a week at the gym
- Draw up a personal finance budget for 2009
- Write Madden 09 review