Thursday, April 10, 2008

THE BIG SPIN UP - PART II


Last month Neil Channing won the Irish Open. If ever there was a player who had ground his way through poker, spent hours upon hours battling it out at the cash tables in the Vic, and approached poker with the level of discipline it requires to remain in the game for years to come, then it’s Neil, and I’m delighted that he’s reaped his rewards. In fact, Neil is probably the complete opposite to the big spin up guy. To him, poker’s a living, and for many years, the glory of tournament poker and winning that ‘major event’ never really appealed to him.

The urge to play the big time is all too prevalent in most players, including myself. Unlike other recreations, there is this sense that poker might ‘pass us by’, that the standard of poker will improve and make that major scoop more difficult, or simply that people will lose interest and these huge fields will quickly disperse. Much like scoring the winning goal in the F.A. Cup Final, we all dream of winning a major event like the Irish Open, but sometimes you have to be realistic.

The variance in poker is so huge, that even Phil Ivey could go months, even years without winning a big event, so what chance does an amateur have if he saves up his pennies for the odd biggie every few months? Of course, it’s possible, but it’s unlikely, and when there’s so much risk, perhaps the Channing route is best.

As I said in Part I, it’s all about what works for you as an individual, but personally, I want to be in the game for as long as possible. I can’t deny that taking a stab at a big tournament isn’t fun, but if it means that you have to struggle along with just the hope that a big win is around the corner, then I’m not sure it’s for me. I don’t want to play on hope.

Recently, playing poker has taken a back seat. As someone who works in poker, you can sometimes overdose on the game, so I’m currently enjoying my brief hiatus away from the virtual felt. Even if I felt like playing, my upcoming schedule is just too hectic:

11th – 18th Apr – Monte Carlo EPT
22nd – 6th May – Chicago & Toronto holiday
10th – 11th May – DTD blonde Bash 6
29th May – 27th Jun – WSOP

With that in mind, I’ve come to accept that I won’t be playing poker until after the World Series, but that’s fine by me. When I get back, the plan of action is a simple one. Put $3k into blonde for heads up matches and $3k onto Party for 6-handed action. Just playing heads up is demoralising. I’m in profit from the last few months, so I know I can beat the game, but I need to keep things fresh, hence a return to Party where I believe the games are good. I’ll probably start at $1/2 and work my way up gradually, but I hope to be back playing the $3/6 and $5/10 tables before the year is out.

I’m not writing off live tournaments, but I don’t want to buy straight in like I have been. I don’t have much time on my hands due to work, but if I’m firm with myself, I hope to play at least one satellite a week, depending on how successful my rings games have been. My Internet connection is annoyingly poor, and work often gets in the way, but if I write out some sort of schedule and make time, there’s no reason why I can’t play more sats.

Finally, I like to keep challenging myself, whether I succeed or fail. So, in that sense, I have come up with a list of goals for the next twelve months. I was going to call them the magnificent seven, but I squeezed in an extra one at the last minute, so they’re now the Excellent Eight:

(1) Qualify for the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise
(2) Qualify for the 2009 WSOP
(3) Win a festival side event or a DTD/Walsall monthly freezeout
(4) Make the final table of a festival Main Event
(5) Play every event of one festival
(6) Play in a different cardroom in London every night for a week
(7) Play cash poker in Vegas for two weeks
(8) Finish the film script I started writing

So there you have it, there’s my big spin up. It’s going to take a bit longer than some other people’s, but I’ll get there in the end, and hopefully one day, all my hard work will pay off like it did for Neil.

6 Comments:

At 12:34 AM, Blogger LeKnave said...

LOL soz snoops, you'll be happy no know tht after i busted i weighed it up and was pretty sure it was worth the £330+expenses for that photo!

Ship it etc.

Also, the caption above it was first class!

tytyty.

 
At 5:13 PM, Blogger snoopy1239 said...

Wow, I should start selling them. :-0

 
At 12:27 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Lol, film script. Not saying you aint got it in you, because you are the sort of fella who has, but seems every dreamer has a film script on their to do list.

Its been on mine sporadically for a few years.

Like your goals, except for the one of 'play every event in a festival' - not sure whether the end justifies the means in a way. Its a bit like saying 'goal 5 - spend loads of money'.

With all the cash you are playing, surely you should set a goal regarding that? Maybe achieve a particular earn rate over X hands or something like that? Just seems odd that online cash is in your immediate future yet all your medium term goals involve live donkaments.

Goal number 8: Bust that fat lass we were on sky poker with from a tournament

 
At 6:27 PM, Blogger snoopy1239 said...

Yes, that's a fair observation to be honest, but because I have a regular income outside of playing, cash poker isn't the be all and end all for me. Cash poker is where I can earn money to play live tournaments, which is what I truly enjoy, hence why my ultimate goals are more tournament based.

The 'play every event goal' is probably an illogical one financially, it's just that I'd thoroughly enjoy the challenge of fully ambushing an entire festival and seeing how it all panned out. Perhaps a small festival, like the Brighton ones, would be suitable.

As for the script, I've already written several of these, so I'm not a first-timer. Some bad, some good, but I certainly garnered a great sense of achievement. I've been meaning to get moving on my current one, but am struggling to find the time, which is why I added it to the list.

 
At 1:22 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Go for an entire GBPT festival, three events for less than a grand, notoriously weak fields and a 'GBPT' sign on your hendon mob database.....which we all know is the most important thing.

 
At 10:19 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi just wondering wether you'd like to exchange links with our betting blog http://www.free-bets.co.uk/blog/index.htm

Let me know and I'll get ur link up

Cheers
Matt

 

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