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<channel>
	<title>Stephen Groom</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.groomi.net/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.groomi.net</link>
	<description>Taking a shot at becoming a Poker Pro</description>
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		<title>Introducing SkyHUD, enable heads up display on skypoker.com</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2012/02/introducing-skyhud-enable-heads-up-display-on-skypoker-com/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2012/02/introducing-skyhud-enable-heads-up-display-on-skypoker-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:39:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1111</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ever since Sky Poker's downloadable client was released people have been discussing the possibility of using a HUD on the site. Since the release of HEM2 I have been developing some software which enables this. Introducing SkyHUD... Skyhud is an application which allows the downloading of Sky Poker hand history files in a text format. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ever since Sky Poker's downloadable client was released people have been discussing the possibility of using a HUD on the site. Since the release of HEM2 I have been developing some software which enables this.</p>
<p>Introducing SkyHUD...</p>
<p>Skyhud is an application which allows the downloading of Sky Poker hand history files in a text format. It currently only supports Cash Games.</p>
<p>These files are readable by poker tracking apps and enable the user many associated features such as analysis, results tracking and a Heads up Display (HUD).</p>
<p>Get it at <a href="http://apps.groomi.net/skyhud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://apps.groomi.net/skyhud</a></p>
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<p>Enjoy! Any questions, support etc I will do via here or Skype (sjgroomi)</p>
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		<item>
		<title>All good things must come to an end</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2012/01/all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2012/01/all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:45:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1107</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It seems that today it has happened. Well not today, ever since the beginning of this month. A combination of cash-game happy hours, rake races, the new VIP system and a small player pool has; for this month at least; rendered the games on sky unplayable. It all started at the end of December when [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It seems that today it has happened. Well not today, ever since the beginning of this month. A combination of cash-game happy hours, rake races, the new VIP system and a small player pool has; for this month at least; rendered the games on sky unplayable.</p>
<p>It all started at the end of December when Sky changed their VIP system, effectively lowering my Rakeback % from 31.3% to 28.8%. I posted in detail about this at <a href="https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=show_static&amp;page=poker_community_forums&amp;plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&amp;plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a57795ac2-1793-4377-b4cf-e124b0f555f4Forum%3adf77f82c-151f-4bea-aae1-fb423dcae1faDiscussion%3aa986e11d-b608-49fd-ad7c-35e9207aa700&amp;plckCurrentPage=0" target="_blank"> skypoker.com</a> and here is a quote giving my thoughts on the changes:</p>
<blockquote><p>So I recieve £1,152 instead of £1,250 for next month's £4k rake.  This is a 7.8% pay-cut of the majority of my income and Sky now retains an extra £98.  That is to say I make more each month from C4P than from in-game winnings.  To view it as Rakeback% we are now being given 2.5% less rakeback.  This now makes sky one of the least competitive euro sites for grinders.<br />
[snip]<br />
And to add insult to injury Sky are now encouraging rakeback grinding via their rake races (Full House promotion).  Assuming this promo leads to some people reaching 60,000 points this month lets also analyze the new VIP system's effect upon their Cash4Points:So as you can see the new changes are negative for all players from microstakes to high-volume grinders.</p>
<p>I suspect that I will be spending January away from sky searching for a new network/site so hopefully the impact won't be felt for the 50nl players who's winrates will increase to compensate :p.</p>
<p>Please give answers Sky as to why you have made these changes.<br />
Stephen G<br />
GLifUlose</p></blockquote>
<p>So that is the new VIP system.  I was quite quickly talked down by my account manager Dan who tried to explain that it was not all bad and to be fair to him, he did a pretty good job as always.  By January 1st, for a number of different reasons I had decided to stick with it for the foreseeable future at Sky, move up to 100nl with a 10bi stop-loss for moving back down.   That is when this happened:</p>
<blockquote>
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<td valign="top" width="434">Not get that iPad you wanted for Christmas? Did Grandma get you a Downton Abbey pencil case instead of that 3D TV you asked for?! Well don't let it ruin your 2012 because you've got another chance…<strong>If you earn more poker points than any other player in January you will win a prize bundle worth £3,000! If you earn over 60,000 points then you are guaranteed the prizes even if you're not the top earner.</strong></p>
<p>It's as simple as that!</td>
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</blockquote>
<p>So, the 1st of January rolls over, I sit at 100nl and it is absolutely disgusting.  They also introduced "Happy Hours" at this time.</p>
<blockquote><p>To help give players a leg up on the Cash for Points ladder, Sky Poker will be running three Happy Hours every day of the week. In that time all Poker Points earned on cash game tables from 5-10p and upwards will get a 50% boost, giving players a fantastic opportunity to boost their Cash for Points payout!</p></blockquote>
<p>As more regs get on it the games get worse and worse and now we have the site's 20 regs playing 16 tables each compared to maybe 100 fish playing 1-2 tables each.  To put it the way I have experienced so far:  At normal peak times where I'd expect to sit with 1 or 2 other grinders on all of my tables, I am now guaranteed to be sitting with three others.  During these new "happy hours" which occur three times per day, two of which are at times when I would usually be playing, if I am to play, I am forced to share my table with a at least three other grinders.</p>
<p>In my opinion we have reached the sad point on Sky where I can no longer make enough money to live from by playing 50 or 100nl.  I promised that I would keep results well away from this blog, but let's just say that I made good use of my 10bi moving down stop-loss and I lost far in excess of £1,000 at 100nl for the first week or so of the month.</p>
<p>Yeah so in continuing my story... I moved down to 50nl and expected to continue the grind as I was in December, playing ~60k hands and expecting to cash out about £1.5k.  Oh how wrong I was.  Lady luck has not been behaving as I would have liked this month, and in total to date this month, my AIEV is around -£1,600 across all limits.  This doesn't help my bottom line when my expected value in the games is to be either slightly losing, or break-even.</p>
<h2>So now what?</h2>
<p>Now that I have lost my only source of income, I now need to find something else to play before I go completely broke.  Here we meet again with my old friend:  MTTsngs on Pokerstars.</p>
<p>I plan to play another 12-13 hours on Sky in order to maintain my VIP level and because it just makes sense given the difference in rakeback which I will receive by grinding on.  I also managed to freeroll into the £220 Sunday Roller on Sunday evening so I will be playing that also.  Beyond that, I will be cashing out what little is left of my bankroll on Monday and putting at least $1,000 on Pokerstars to start the grind over there.</p>
<p>I did for one month while I was working full-time choose to play 45man and 90man MTTsngs on Pokerstars with a little bit of success.  Back when I used to be a terrible recreational player used to dump off money playing MTTs over there too.  As I remember, the fields were hilariously soft and I did have a small stable of friends who all played small MTTs with a lot of success.  So... I have a lot of good people around for discussing MTT strategy, BRM etc.  Add the availability of good advice and MTT players to my confidence in MTTsngs and we have my plan for Jan/Feb.</p>
<p>Assuming a $1.5k bankroll, my plan is as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>Play 22 days/month</li>
<li>$15, $8 and $3.5r 180-mans</li>
<li>$3-$11 , $51r1a and $3.3r MTTs</li>
<li>Play 1,500 games per month</li>
</ul>
<p>The volume target is based on my calculations of what is required for Platinum/Supernova status.  Assuming that the end of January goes well and I make the decision to continue to grind on Pokerstars, I would like to maintain a high enough VIP status to get at least 30% rakeback.  ie. Platinum (28%-31% according to <a href="http://www.pokerstars.co.uk/vip/platinum/" target="_blank">pokerstars.co.uk</a>).  By achieving Platinum star VIP level, I also enable myself to become a Supernova by the end of 2012.  Achieving this means that every month afterwards my rakeback is increased to 35-38% (alot!).</p>
<p>This plan for pokerstars is very much a first-step and as of yet I have no idea if the volume targets are realistic.  I believe that after around two or three days of playing I will be able to assess whether it is and will report back with amended plans.</p>
<p>If you have any experience, advice or input regarding any of my plans (VIP scheme, MTTs &amp; MTTsngs on stars or anything else) please leave a comment below.  It would be appreciated very much.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading<br />
Good Luck <img src='http://www.groomi.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_surprised.gif' alt=':o' class='wp-smiley' /><br />
Stephen</p>
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		<title>2011 wrap-up and looking forwards into 2012</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/12/2011-wrap-up-and-looking-forwards-into-2012/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/12/2011-wrap-up-and-looking-forwards-into-2012/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life Happenings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1101</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here we are at the top of 2011 and for the last 4 months I've been considering myself a "Professional Poker Player".  My risk-of-ruin had been pretty high from the outset and already once I have recovered from being pretty close to busto.  For this reason I am very happy that for now at least, I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Here we are at the top of 2011 and for the last 4 months I've been considering myself a "Professional Poker Player".  My risk-of-ruin had been pretty high from the outset and already once I have recovered from being pretty close to busto.  For this reason I am very happy that for now at least, I have managed to survive in this game.</p>
<p>The poker is the main talking point of this blog nowadays and what 95% of the content will be about in the future but as it is a pretty fun and important part of the year I can put that to one side for a few paragraphs.</p>
<p>2011 has been a very good year for me all in all and for once as I reflect I am happy with most if not all of the choices and decisions that I have made.  I am now 21, I have a BA degree with 2:2 hons, I have a new car and flat, a good circle of friends with similar interests, a new job (some might not call it that yet) which so far has been very rewarding and I have a better quality of life than I can ever remember having.</p>
<p>2012 for me is going to be about next-steps.  Taking everything that I have now and making a conscious effort to improve on what I would call a good solid foundation which I worked towards in the latter half of 2011.  I have already decided on a few achievable and measurable goals for what to achieve in the next 12 months and this post should hopefully allow me to revisit them and see how I am doing at achieving them and sticking to the famously useless New Year's resolutions.</p>
<p><strong>What I want to achieve in 2012<br />
</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Play around 700,000 cash game hands on Sky Poker at stakes no lower than £0.20/£0.40 over 11 months</li>
<li>Spend a full month of poker playing MTTs and play at least 600 individual tournaments</li>
<li>Make £18,000 total profit (inc: bonuses) from Sky Poker</li>
<li>Move up a limit on sky and be a consistent winning regular at £0.50/£1.00 on Sky</li>
<li>Get onto Team Sky Pro</li>
<li>Have a regular fortnightly home game</li>
<li>Travel around playing a small, select sample of live poker games inc: bimonthly long-weekend trips to Nottingham for the deepstack festival</li>
<li>Increase my bankroll enough to be comfortable playing £2/£5 live cash games</li>
<li>Buy/adopt a Staffy dog</li>
<li>Have at least one holiday abroad</li>
<li>Increase the amount of socialising that I do in my spare time</li>
</ul>
<p>I will use this list throughout the year to check back and report on how I am doing with my achievements.  I expect that I will probably review my progress quarterly.</p>
<p>As well as all of the positive things which I'd like to achieve and improve upon in 2012, there are ofcourse the negatives which ought to be addressed too.  This part is usually tougher:</p>
<p><strong>2012 New Year's Resolutions</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Gambling<br />
</strong>I'm not sure of the best way to address or measure this but I certainly want to reduce or totally stop indulging in -EV gambling (casino games, fruit machines, slots, bookies etc).  This hasn't been a major problem for me but I have definitely spent/wasted/lost more money than I would like to have over the last few years. I think getting in control of this while I still play small will help me to stay away from such games when I have the ability to punt away large amounts of potentially life changing money.  I will start by saying that for the foreseeable I will totally stop all of the above activities.</li>
<li><strong>Health and Fitness<br />
</strong>This is a must-have on everyone's list but all jokes aside it will be very important for me this year given my working situation.  My diet could actually be far worse and I know a great many people who spend 6+hours a day in their home office who have far far worse diets than I do.  I don't overindulge on takeaways, I don't sit all night and munch on convenience-food and unhealthy snacks either.  I always have at least breakfast, one big meal and some smaller in-between meal snacks per day.  Now obviously this isn't ideal and I should be aiming to have breakfast + 2 meals per day but I find it tough when I am awake at night to be motivated to make a big meal at 4am.  I also have problems motivating myself to cook for just one person.  If there was someone else around I know for sure that I would eat more consistently and also cook better meals with more variety.  That is the thing which I would like to improve on more than anything else.  Quality of my meals.  I often find myself digging around the freezer for a quick 20-minutes and done meal to throw in the oven but really this isn't very satisfying or healthy.  There is nothing better than having your own home-cooked steak dinner but as I mentioned earlier it is tough to justify the expense and effort when eating alone.</p>
<p>In terms of exercise I made a small start earlier in the year when Ben and I chose to start jogging.  Our laziness and Ben's injured foot means that this didn't last very long.  I will keep this up and maybe have a view to joining a Gym, swimming pool or some kind of sport to keep me busy.  In addition to this, if all goes to plan and I get my puppy (yaaaay), 3 walks a day will ensure I don't become heavier than my age in 2012.</li>
</ul>
<p>I have now basically typed myself out so to all readers, friends, opponents etc I hope you had a very good Christmas and hope you have a Happy New Year!</p>
<p>Stephen<br />
x</p>
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		<title>Merry Christmas!</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/12/merry-christmas/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/12/merry-christmas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Dec 2011 07:41:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life Happenings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1098</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Merry Christmas to all readers and players, may your festive season be relaxing, and enjoyable. (but don't forget to come play on Sky Poker between 26th and 30th because I like many others need to pay my credit card bill this month!) This is just a quick blog to let you know that I have [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Merry Christmas to all readers and players, may your festive season be relaxing, and enjoyable. (but don't forget to come play on Sky Poker between 26th and 30th because I like many others need to pay my credit card bill this month!)</p>
<p>This is just a quick blog to let you know that I have a very detailed and interesting post scheduled to be published within the next 3 or 4 days detailing my plans for the upcoming year including my aims, working arrangements predictions etc.</p>
<p>For now though, I shall go back to opening the rest of my presents (this is my first... New Laptop <img src='http://www.groomi.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  ) and probably get a little drunk.</p>
<p>Happy Holidays!<br />
Stephen</p>
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		<title>Blog when you&#8217;re winning&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/12/blog-when-youre-winning/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/12/blog-when-youre-winning/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:22:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life Happenings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1094</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So as always seems to happen with peoples blogs (especially mine for some reason) I have managed to let between 3 and 4 weeks pass since my last post.  The reason?  I can only assume that it's because I've been losing a tonne.  From my high point at the end of November I am currently [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So as always seems to happen with peoples blogs (especially mine for some reason) I have managed to let between 3 and 4 weeks pass since my last post.  The reason?  I can only assume that it's because I've been losing a tonne.  From my high point at the end of November I am currently still stuck over £1k on Sky and overall it has been pretty tough.  Somebody commented to me that I seemed to be pretty stressed out and introvert at the peak of my losses (I was losing close to £2k about a week ago) and looking back I guess they were right.  These are the biggest losses I've ever incurred on my own money lifetime and to say that it didn't have a bad effect on my emotional state and personality would be a pretty big lie.</p>
<p>So yeah.. Where did it all go wrong?  November was my biggest winning month since leaving work and second biggest winner lifetime.  As I remember I had gotten pretty complacent and lazy towards the end of the month and when December rolled around I don't think that my head was in the right place.  By the 7th day in December I had lost all of the money in my sky account, loaded up another £1k and taken out my anger over at betfair casino <img src='http://www.groomi.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_mad.gif' alt=':mad:' class='wp-smiley' />  losing a pretty hefty sum of money playing casino games (predominantly blackjack) which I don't mention in the quoted losses above /\.  That money I guess is expenditure, but it is very wasteful and changed my mind about table games very quickly.  I will definitely have something about that in my new year's resolutions/goals post in about a fortnight.</p>
<p>For all the bad it has done, my massive downswing at the beginning of this month has had it's benefits too however.  It has once again shown me how cruel poker can be and I have learned that emotionally I am not as close to being ready to deal with this as I once thought I was.  It has also taught me the importance of volume, planning, discipline and motivation.  At the beginning of the month I decided that I would aim to make around 16,000 sky poker points (£625).  This would have been equivalent to around 106 hours of 6tabling 50nl.  By day 13 of this month my target has now become a far greater 24,000 points (£1,250) and already by the end of the 13th I had made 11,652 (78 hours of play 6tabling 50nl).  Coupled with the fact that at my low-point this month I spent a few days playing 20nl and moved all the way back up through the limits playing 20, 30, 40 and now back to 50nl it is a pretty impressive feat.</p>
<p>At this point in time on an average day I am playing 8 tables of 50nl and playing between 6 and 8 hours per day.  Assuming a 20 day working month this should net me between 24,000 (£1,250) and 32,000 (£1,875) points per month.  If you then add to this the money made in-game this should lead to me having a very comfortable lifestyle next year at 50nl.  This is before we even discuss plans for moving up.</p>
<p>So in 2012 I will be making at the very least £15k from rakeback alone.  This solid foundation allows me to speculate that I should easily cash out over £20k from Sky Poker next year and allow me some kind of perspective for planning my year out in terms of profit and savings goals, moving up and potentially recruiting and mentoring micro-stakes horses as my roll allows.</p>
<p>I am going to take a leaf out of my friend Jon Lundy's book next year who showed me a very interesting structured plan for how he was going to spend his time in 2012.  No more staying up till 9am drinking and then sleeping in until 8pm the following day and missing grind.  I mentioned at the start of this process that this is a job first and foremost.  A person who treats his job with as much respect as most grinders treat theirs will have a very unrewarding and mediocre career and I need to do my best to keep some perspective.</p>
<p>My next planned blog will be around the 29th-31st detailing my plans for next year, new years resolutions and targets as well as my findings from 4 full months as a pro.  Please as ever leave a comment below if you enjoyed this read and have anything for me to discuss next time.</p>
<p>Cheers<br />
Stephen</p>
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		<title>Wow. Turns out I&#8217;m pretty degenerate</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/11/wow-turns-out-im-pretty-degenerate/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/11/wow-turns-out-im-pretty-degenerate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:04:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1092</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This week has been pretty fun.  I went and visited an old friend down at her new place in Brighton and met alot of cool people down there.  A few drunken nights spent with a bunch of squatters and students in Brighton taught me that I really do enjoy travelling, meeting new people and broadening [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This week has been pretty fun.  I went and visited an old friend down at her new place in Brighton and met alot of cool people down there.  A few drunken nights spent with a bunch of squatters and students in Brighton taught me that I really do enjoy travelling, meeting new people and broadening my horizons.  I am 100% going to travel more in the new year and I am going to go as far as making it a new year's resolution, with some goals and targets too.</p>
<p>As far as poker is concerned since I last blogged I have played very little.  I continued with my roll on 888poker for a couple more days and probably lost about 1bi but then I decided to cash it back out for the following reason.  <em>I am a tablegame degen!</em></p>
<p>I realised this as a result of a number of events in the past week which has taught me that I definately have a problem, leak or addiction which needs addressing.  After a brutal losing session in Teesside I was seen spinning my change to the nearest £100 on blackjack and letting it ride.  I did about 5 spins in excess of £50 and let the original wager ride for about 5 in a row until I finally lost (not letting profit ride unfortuaneltly) and I thought that this was totally<em></em> out of character for me.  I put it down to stupidity and decided to forget about it.</p>
<p>The next time was on Tuesday at the circus £100 game.  I played in a deep 1/2 game (with an unbelievably soft lineup) and couldn't win a pot due to being totally carddead.  I lost about £200 by blinding out, 3bet folding and folding lots of failled c-bets and left the game.  On the way to the cage to cash my chips back out I was again seen playing £50 blackjack hands and higher.  This was starting to look like a problem.</p>
<p>So I was playing on 888poker, had one of those sessions again, couldn't win a pot, couldn't get a 3bet or cbet through and lost a few bi.  As I felt my mouse sliding to blackjack on the way to the [x] button to close 888poker I realised I was in trouble.  I resisted, went straight to cashier and cashed out the remainder of my roll.  Having $1k sitting right next to a high limit online blackjack game is totally unsuitable until I am sure that I can resist.</p>
<p>Now that I have recognised that I have a problematic tilty-degenerate blackjack streak in me I must think of a way to address it.  I have a pretty good group of friends who travel with me most of the time when I visit casinos and I am damn sure that they would give me a slap around the head and ask me WTF i'm doing if they saw me spinning £100's on blackjack.  I don't want to rely on this though.  I need to convince myself that I have the self control to have £1k+ sitting in an online casino and know that it will never be exposed to negative expectation table games.</p>
<p>I think for the mostpart this will just require willpower and there will be no quick fix for putting a stop to this.  I think that the longer I go without touching tablegames the easier it will be for me not to play.  My friend Ben has a philosophy that he won't play table games at all.  While I respect this I don't think it is completely healthy either.  I believe that often it is fun to play micro-limit blackjack or roulette in a casino whilst drinking, waiting for a game to start or whatever but I need to address the problem of playing so high.  I think that I will attempt to adopt Ben's ideal for a little while and set a target to not play tablegames completely for a period.  Maybe another new year's resolution.</p>
<p>With that in mind, if anyone would like to lay me some money for a prop bet about me not playing tablegames for 1month, 3months or maybe even 6months to a year in 2012 then I'm all ears.  We should discuss it in private however.  No silly £5, £10, £50 wagers though.  It would have to be a figure which it would hurt to lose.</p>
<p>Back to poker... On sky this month I have stopped tracking my progress via pokerjournal and the only measure of how well I have been doing is my cashout history.  I am very happy with the amount of money I have made in the last 30 days to date but not too pleased with the volume.  I don't know for sure how much I have played but I am pretty sure I've fallen below my 120hrs/month target.  I think that I will begin tracking meticulously again in december either via PokerJournal or find a way to do it online (suggestions anybody?).  This way I will know if I've been excessively lazy and know how short of my target I have fallen.</p>
<p>I think that is about all I have to say this week so please leave a comment if you want to discuss anything I've wrote.</p>
<p>Cheers<br />
Stephen</p>
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		<title>Day 24 playing on my own</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/11/day-24-playing-on-my-own/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/11/day-24-playing-on-my-own/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:58:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1085</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been playing on my own without a backer for the best part of a month now and with some significant changes coming up to the way I work I figured that today would be as good a time as any for a quick blog update. The past month I've been on the biggest [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have been playing on my own without a backer for the best part of a month now and with some significant changes coming up to the way I work I figured that today would be as good a time as any for a quick blog update.</p>
<p>The past month I've been on the biggest heater of my life.  Not anything superuser like where I can feel myself winning lots more pots than usual, hitting more draws and sets than usual but when I look at the results I've achieved I can speculate pretty well that this is just me running incredibly well overall and that these results won't continue in the long term.</p>
<p>On SkyPoker alone I have earned around 3 months wages from when I dealt poker at the casino.  Add to this my play live also and I have had a very comfortable 4 figure month.  Only time will tell if this is sustainable but I can confirm that I would be extremely happy with half of the money I have earned.  A sick hold'em session down at <a href="http://www.galacasino.co.uk/local-casinos/casino-finder/north-east/stockton-on-tees.html">Gala Teesside</a> this week was worth about 1/3 as much as I have earned on sky which has allowed me enough liquid cash to split my online money into two seperate bankrolls.</p>
<p>I chose to deposit on a second site in addition to Sky for a number of different reasons.  Firstly the traffic.  Sky Poker is a very low-volume site.  Right now it is reporing that it has 1,399 players sitting across all of it's tournament and cash game tables.  According to <a href="http://pokerscout.com/">Poker Scout</a>, Sky's average cash game player pool in the last 7 days was 345.  Comparing this to 888poker (my new site) who achieved 2,200 gives an idea of just how small Sky is.  At peak times I play on Sky exclusively as I believe the games are more profitable.  During the afternoons and early hours of the morning however there are often as few as 3 tables, sometimes even 0 which makes grinding impossible.  It is at these times when I will add 888.</p>
<p>The use of Hold'em Manager is also a big reason for chosing to play on a second site.  On sky there is no tracking software available and the only measure of your success and results is the account balance at the end of a session.  I could have glaring leaks in my game and be losing a ton of money which I feel that I will be able to identify better if I have a tracking app such a Hold'em Manager for post-session reviews.</p>
<p>The fact that I am now using HEM2 on 888poker means that I will have some statistics, hand replays and graphs to post within this blog for all of the results-focused readers that I have.  (Yes I mean you simmy!)  I expect to play around 15k hands on 888poker over the next 30 days so I won't have too much to post on that front in the near future though.</p>
<p>If you have any opinions about my choice to play on multiple sites, and the choice of 888poker please leave me a comment below.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading<br />
Stephen<br />
x</p>
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		<title>Back to 50nl</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/11/back-to-50nl/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/11/back-to-50nl/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:42:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life Happenings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1083</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I don't believe that I mentioned in too much detail how my life and financial sitiation was, mostly because it isn't in my best interests to tell everybody on the internet just how much money I do or don't have in my poker and bank accounts.  Let it just be said that two weeks ago [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I don't believe that I mentioned in too much detail how my life and financial sitiation was, mostly because it isn't in my best interests to tell everybody on the internet just how much money I do or don't have in my poker and bank accounts.  Let it just be said that two weeks ago when I started playing on my own money I was in a fairly unpleasant situation financially and if I were to have gotten off to a bad start in poker I would have been in a lot of trouble financially very quickly.  I was very close to going back to work and had even taken steps to begin searching for and applying for jobs.</p>
<p>Happily though, the exact opposite has happened and I am now quite confident and comfortable with my professional status and my financial sitatuion.  This is entirely due to a huuuuuge heater which I have been on over the last fortnight since I started to play on my own money and I have managed to cash out enough money to keep me very comfortable for the forseeable and give me what I consider an acceptably low risk of ruin.  Exact amounts will be kept for those who it concerns but 14 days ago when I started to grind again I considered that I needed to have a very successful November in order to continue to play poker professionally.  Now though, if I break even for the entirety of November I will still be in pretty good shape.  A losing month however is still not a good prospect.  I have a sizeable bankroll for 50nl but I still don't have my three months life expenses quite yet.</p>
<p>I don't really know what else there is to say on the matter now.  My quality of life is still really high and I am very happy with my work/play balance.  I am spending a fairly high amount of time relative to most socialising, eating out and going out with friends and this is the main reason why I like the idea of continuing to be a professional poker player so much.  The one thing which has bugged me a little bit recently is when for whatever reason somebody asks me in a formal environment what I do for a living.  I still haven't decided what my go-to answer is going to be to this question but when I don't see it coming I am having a real hard time thinking of an answer.  I wonder if other pro gamblers have had an issue with this but here is the process I have.  For example, my GP asked me "so what do you do?".  My immediate thought was "What DO I do?".  To say I am a pro gambler is likely to lead to loads of awkard questions from people who don't understand the principles of the thing.  My friend and fellow pro <a href="http://www.martin990.com/">Martin</a> and I had a discussion yesterday about the people who ask about gambling and say "So do you win every time you play", "Can you teach me your system", "If I give you (£10|£20|£50|£100) will you double it for me?" and from that I concluded that it is probably best to not discuss the idea with people unfamiliar with poker.  So for the moment my go-to has been to say that I am unemployed.</p>
<p>Now, for me being unemployed is a negative thing.  Somebody tells me that I am unemployed and I immediately jump to stereotypes which have grown within me as I have been growing up and it is not something which I want people to think of me.  When I say that I am unemployed but show up in a nice car, with nice clothes wearing my watch I don't want people to judge me so I think I need to come up with something new to say to people.  An approach which some people use is to be very vague, or avoid the topic but I think that this makes you seem untrustworthy or a little odd in some way.  If you ask someone you have recently met "What do you do for your living?" and they answer "This and that" or quickly change the topic then what is your opinion going to be of them.</p>
<p>I kind of wish that last month I had luckboxed a place on to Team Sky Pro because then it is very easy to answer the question.  "What do you do for your living Stephen?" answer: "Oh, I'm a team sky poker player".  That rolls off the tongue alot better than "I'm a pro poker player" in my opinion.  So basically I need to think a little more about how I am going to approach the subject in the future or luckbox my way on to Team Sky Pro in November.  I know which I'd rather do.</p>
<p>Hmmmm.  This blog seems a little rambly and chatotic so I will end it now before I get onto a nother odd tangent.  As always, thanks for reading and this time I hope there can be some discussion about /\ in the comments below.<br />
Cheers<br />
Stephen<br />
x</p>
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		<title>Big changes</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/10/big-changes/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/10/big-changes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:00:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1078</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So I haven't blogged very much at all in the last two weeks and that is mostly because some very major stuff has happened and I have taken this long to rationalise everything enough to begin writing about it.  Alot of stuff involves pretty personal financial information and this post will be very vague and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So I haven't blogged very much at all in the last two weeks and that is mostly because some very major stuff has happened and I have taken this long to rationalise everything enough to begin writing about it.  Alot of stuff involves pretty personal financial information and this post will be very vague and probably just cliffs about what has happened over the last few weeks and what my plans are to proceed.</p>
<p>So the first and most important thing is that I no longer have a backer for cash games.  After losing consistently for 6 weeks under my previous stake I got to the point where I wasn't going to get out of makeup at any point in the forseeable future and this meant that I wasn't going to be earning any money for a long time either.  After assessing my finances and monthly expenditure I decided that I could not afford to play under the cash game stake for long enough to start making money again.  I decided that I was going to take some time off to play on my own money in order to save up a few months living expenses again.</p>
<p>I approached my backer to discuss my plans and all of the options available.  We had quite a long chat and without giving up any details, I am now no longer staked by him.  With the money that I have available, I have had to set some aside for a bankroll and start playing on my own.  I have given myself a £50nl bankroll so I have moved down to that limit and unfortunately now my plans involve moving down and up as my bankroll dictates.</p>
<p>Aside from my bankroll I have a really small amount of money available for living expenses.  Probably 2 months at best.  I don't have close to enough to be comfortable and I certainly don't have anywhere near the £5k which I had decided I needed to play on my own money.  Basically, I need to have a shit-hot November and get my bankroll built relatively soon or the game is up for me.  I am going to continue playing cashgames on Sky starting at £50nl and play that limit in order to try to get my liquid-worth up to £5k.  I will be moving down as soon as my bankroll reaches 20bi for 40nl, 30nl and 20nl and cashing out when I win at 50nl.  I will not be moving up any time soon.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I am now back to actively considering other options such as conventional employment and will be leaving my options very open in the short term.  Ideally I will have a good run in November and be back on my feet making more money than I had ever made whilst being staked.  Here's hoping.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading<br />
Stephen</p>
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		<title>October Goals and Targets</title>
		<link>http://www.groomi.net/2011/10/october-goals-and-targets/</link>
		<comments>http://www.groomi.net/2011/10/october-goals-and-targets/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Oct 2011 03:43:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stephen Groom</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Poker]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.groomi.net/?p=1074</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So.. October got off to a flying start!  I am still in 4 figures of makeup with no sign of variance giving me a break and letting me win some money.  I could divulge figures and rant for the duration of a healthy blog post but I doubht that this is constucrive and would probably [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So.. October got off to a flying start!  I am still in 4 figures of makeup with no sign of variance giving me a break and letting me win some money.  I could divulge figures and rant for the duration of a healthy blog post but I doubht that this is constucrive and would probably be a bit boring to read also.  This blog post instead will be about how I will overcome horrible negative variance with my own personal proven weapon.  VOLUME!  Despite that being in capitals I don't mean volume like shouting!  Although if I wasn't alone in my flat there'd probably be alot of raised voices and rants as I step away from high three figure losing sessions.  No.. I am going to overcome this brutal downswing by playing just as much poker as I had been before.  The thing about losing money is that it hurts a whole lot more than winning money feels good.  Winning money and running incredible doesn't really have a significant impact on ones motivation, willingness or eagerness to grind.  I don't know why, it just doesn't.  Losing however has quite a drastic effect.  When I sit down and lose £500+ every time I log into Sky Poker it makes me hate the game.  I make excuses not to grind and when I am grinding my game is most likely really suboptimal, maybe even a losing game because I feel so shitty and don't want to be doing this.</p>
<p>I am doing my absolute best however to overcome this and put in a large amount of volume for October.  Downswing aside, I have done a little bit of research about the Sky Poker Priority Club, their Cash4Points bonus and what I can achieve using this programme.  Some would call it "<a href="http://www.s2cpoker.com/there-is-only-1-way-to-win-at-playing-poker/" target="_blank"><strong>Having a system</strong></a>".  <strong></strong>I have a volume target, and a monetary goal for this month too.  The most important thing however is the volume.  I could go on losing for a lot longer, and I am prepared for such an event but it would be tragic if one day/week I woke up and decided that enough is enough and I am not playing today, tomorrow, this week or whatever.</p>
<p>So the goals (whichever comes first):</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Make 28,000 Sky 'Poker Points'</strong></li>
<li><strong>Play 120hrs on Sky</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>That's it.. Pretty simple really and I am well on target for both.  There is one other thing which I am hoping to achieve this month but I will not make it a goal is ultimately it is not my decision as to whether or not it happens.  It is random chance, variance, luck or whatever you will call it.  The goal is:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Cash out £800 my side from the stake</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>So this is everything which I am hoping to achieve for October and I have 31 days to do it.  I am going to be playing a lot of 8 hour days and 6 day weeks this month as it is important to do my best to get out of this makeup hole as soon as possible.  I will not be pushing myself too hard though as I can vouch that playing tired, emotional, tilted or any other negative state is very bad and results in losing money.l</p>
<p>28,000 Poker Points.  This is a very important goal and if I achieve it will give me and indication of the amount of money which I will be able to make in the coming months.  <em>Hint:  it's alot!</em>.<br />
28k points is worth £1,250<br />
+25% for making over 10k = £1,562.50<br />
At my current rate I will achieve this in 108 hours making my hourly rate just from rakeback £14.47/hr<br />
Adding to this any money which I make in the games (the plan obviously isn't to lose or breakeven) I expect that my hourly rate will be high enough to give me a comfortable living.</p>
<p>For this reason, I am not particularly worried about being 4 figures in makeup at the time being.  I am comfortable enough in the near future to be able to afford to look after myself with no income.  Yeah I won't be going on any holidays or going out clubbing every weekend but I will get by.  I made ~£1k in the games at 50nl last month and if I repeat the performance at 100nl over the next 26 days I will still manage to cash out a decent sum of money despite having started the month in over £2k of makeup.</p>
<p>My lifestyle has taken a little bit of a hit with the recent losing streak and more than I ever would have thought.  I have stupidly let my sleeping pattern get messed up and am making it a priority to get it put back to normal again.  In addition to this I am getting out a lot less than I would like to (in part due to being very tight with money this month due to potentially going a few months without an income) and I need to start thinking about what I am going to do and where I am going to go to change that.  I have noticed that despite the fact that I have a very good group of friends centered around Poker and gambling, I could use a group of friends with something else in common just to hang out with and go out drinking, for food etc.  Or a girlfriend <img src='http://www.groomi.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> .  That'd fill the hole quite well.</p>
<p>I can also see my health having quite a hard time due to my new lifestyle so I have started to do jogging with my backer.  We've been once so far and came to the conclusion that we are both very out of shape and need to do something about it.  A gym membership is a very likely outcome as well as more jogging.  We aimed to make it a weekly affair but due to us having horrible sleeping patterns and some other funny car related stuff this hasn't happened.  I think we went once in the last fortnight.  I <strong>must</strong> motivate myself to do this atleast once weekly.  I will make that a goal for October also.</p>
<p>OK so I think I have ran out of words for this week so I will wrap this post up here.  Once again thanks for reading and if there is something you would like to contribute or a suggestion for what to mention in next weeks blog please leave a comment below.</p>
<p>Thanks<br />
Stephen</p>
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