Running Like Antonius...

Well here it is, my first ever blog post!

I think I’m going to keep this first post kinda short and simple, ease myself into this new environment, if you will. However, it’s pretty unrealistic to expect any interest in this blog without providing just a little bit of initial information about myself and my goals for this outlet to the wider world.

Goals….don’t you just love them!? It’s one of my short term aims to become more goal orientated in life, which is kinda sad, since I’ve been fighting this very phenomenon for about 7 years….. here, have a real goal to cheer you up :)
This is one of my all time favourites.

I’m a 22 year old final year English student from N.Ireland, in the U.K. (Shameless attempt to get all the Americans on my side here; UK players ARE donkeys, I cringe constantly at the advice given in UK mags/forums)

My poker playing ‘career’ so far has played out at low stakes 6 max and HU cash games with probably 80-100k hands in total since I began taking it more seriously around a year and a half ago. Currently beating 25NL at a solid clip, while last year I had some sweet results at 50NL HU over around 17k hands…….why haven’t I moved up? Read on….

I still have many, many leaks and flaws in my game, but probably my most damaging leak is psychological. ‘Downswings’ or even multiple losing sessions are really, really difficult to deal with and have resulted, in the past, in a ‘panic withdrawal’ of my online roll. The thought of losing it all, despite being adequately rolled for the games I play, is an overriding one and has been so, sooo damaging in my quest to move up in stakes. (Any advice here? I know it’s probably a common thing for players, probably having it’s inception in a fundamental lack of trust in my ability, though it’s better than it’s ugly cousin, ‘flippin’ 4 rollz, right?!)

One of my main aims in starting this blog is to create some accountability for myself in poker, fitness and in life. For various reasons, this is the perfect time for me to reflect and rebuild, but with that comes some difficult times, I’m hoping that the ability to get my thoughts out there and (hopefully) receiving feedback from people who’ve trodden this well worn path before me will really aid my focus on getting to where I want to be. In terms of poker, this will likely include session summaries and hand posts. With both life and fitness I’m intending to blog mainly thoughts and observations I come up with along the way, this might include some quotes, tips but will definitely, categorically…include lolcats.

Regarding fitness, I’m setting a 10 week goal which, if completed, will allow me to run 5k+ at a solid race pace (Hey, swingin like busta rhymes, alliteration next week, yo!) Tonight I ran for around 20 minutes, alternating between walking and a quick jog, it went pretty well considering my usual inability to run without involving a ball of some kind.

I think I’ll return to the ‘Life in general’ topic another time, it seems my version of ‘short and simple’ falls somewhere between Pokey and that other visionary genius, Tolstoy…

Wow, blogging is super therapeutic, who knew!? I admittedly haven’t read many blogs so apologies if this one rambled on at any point, will do some research for next time by gratuitously raping both Krantz’s blog and Death Donkey’s for ideas! Feedback along the road would be great guys and if you have a blog, post it with your comment or PM me for a shout out, I’m a request whore, I know ;) I also just generally welcome PM’s since it’s great to talk to other players…esp anyone on DC, cause in my few months as a full subscriber, if I’ve noticed one thing, it’s that we are the coolest people on the planet

Peace

P.S. I’d like to thank the auto-correct funcions in my braoser, without whih this blog could ne1th3r have been ritten or read.