Sorry I haven’t posted for the last three weeks. I’m working on my first novel and it’s coming together quicker than I thought it would, which is great. I’m halfway through, writing a chapter a week and loving how the rough draft is coming. In fact here’s a picture of the chapters I’ve completed.

A group of chapters I’ve written from my first book.

To keep this post short, I’m going to try to write at least one blog post a week until I’m done writing the rough draft. These will be based around the challenges of writing and getting published. I’ll also be continuing on my book reviews, slowly at first because between working 8 hours and writing for 5 hours at night there’s not that much time for reading right now and of course writing about my journey to get my masters degree.

I just wanted to thank everyone for reading my blog, it’s become a journey and the journey’s coming faster than I expected which is both scaring me but also way too much fun as well.

Cheers everyone,

- Peter

I didn’t write an update about our meeting last Thursday night with the priest because I had to sort out my feelings first.

Overall, it went really really well. He’s nice and he’s funny. None of his questions were too personal, and he’s very flexible – for instance, Mr. Sloth isn’t officially a parishioner anywhere. He was registered at his family’s church in another diocese, but that was, oh, about six years ago. And even though he’s gone to Mass in the past six years, he never went through the paperwork to join a church. Apparently that can be kind of a problem, but the good Father just marked him down as a parishioner at his own church and told him to attend at least once between now and the wedding. Problem solved!

But the meeting did cost us. Our priest suggested we all go out to dinner so he could get to know us better, which sounded great. And we asked him to choose the place (despite looking forward to La Tavola). He picked a great seafood restaurant in Pittsburgh that is a little pricey, but no big deal. At this point, I knew we were probably footing the bill. He is filling out a lot of paperwork for us, he let us know about a much less expensive pre-cana program that will save us around $200, and he’s a priest – what, we’re going to let him pay? I don’t think so. Catholic guilt :)

Anyway, the Irish-are-heavy-drinkers stereotype is so very very true. Priests are no exception. This particular man fired back two premium cocktails in about ten minutes. Yikes. Then he chose a nice glass of wine to go with his appetizer, and picked a great salmon dish as well. I don’t mean to sound cheap, but c’mon. We are saving for a wedding – is it necessary to order three drinks and an appetizer, in addition to the already expensive entree, when someone else is footing the bill? I would never, ever do that. He offered to pay, which we obviously declined. He did pay the tip, so that helped. But it was quite expensive. I also thought he was a little rude to the waiter, which is something I’m extra sensitive about.

All in all, I do like him. I’m happy he’ll say our wedding Mass. As I mentioned before, he’s funny and tells good stories. But it wasn’t the “dream meeting” I’d anticipated. I guess that’s a good lesson for the wedding – just let things be and let it go (and plan to spend more than you think you should.) So I wasn’t sure how to approach this post, but honesty is the best policy. Anyone else a little thrown off by something while wedding planning?

I spoke to Mentor BH and he suggested I take a week off playing, which I did and I tried to relax. I came back and posted a few wins but it still seemed to be one step forward two steps back for me. I made some key lifestyle changes. I started going to the gym with the Muscle Shark (Jez) every day, he is an absolute legend and number one trainer. Going to the gym made me feel great and made me much more positive at the tables. It’s also a great chance to get out and socialise mid week because playing poker online can be quiet anti social. It’s not like a job where you meet people every day and have office banter and anyone that knows me will tell you that I am naturally a very social person. I covered my poker account balance during sessions so I could focus more on playing well and making the correct decisions instead of focusing on whether I was winning or stuck in the hole. I spent time with friends and tried relaxing in between sessions. I also watched some vids on deucescracked.com thanks to legend White Knight and they really helped me start thinking like a winning poker player again. I began constantly thinking about opponents hand ranges and my plan for each hand.

The result of all this was a slow and steady grind back. I still ran bad and couldn’t seem to hold when I needed to but I did start to get a few breaks. Monday night of this week I played 6 a-side football for team Fatside and we won 5-1, it was an awesome team performance. I felt great, came home, had a protein shake and a banana and loaded up some tables. I played the best poker I have ever played in my life. Mondays session was one of the biggest turning points in my poker career. Mentor BH talked about me needing the hunger to play and succeed and it was there more than ever. I played so aggressively and felt so confident. Even when I suffered beats I carried on relentlessly three betting people and raising and dominating. I felt so in control of every hand. That session made me want to become as good a poker player as I can now. The hunger is there. Finally, I played a winning eight hour session last night and I made it into profit for September, it felt amazing and was worth all the hard work I have put in this month.

Final result for September is 71 hours played (37521 hands) and $146 profit. I ran $5000 under EV (expected value) this month at $1/$2 and I mixed in some $0.50/$1. This come back meant a lot to me as I have never had a losing month since starting to play full time in Dec 2009 and despite this being pretty much break even, it’s still a win and I should get a sweet bonus this month too!

Here is my graph for September showing you my results with EV (green is my actual profit for month and red is EV.

I want to thank all my friends that have put up with me whinging on msn this month and for helping me with advice and support. You know who you are and I really appreciate it :-)

I want to list some of the things I have learned this month that I think everyone, both new to poker and those who have played for years can find useful. Bankroll management, I normally have at least 50 buy ins for the level that I play. I went on a 25 buy in downswing which meant that if I had less online I could have gone broke or would have had to move down. I saw a reg considered one of the best on Pacific playing $0.50/$1 and he said he cashed out his roll and went on a downswing so had to drop down. Therefore bankroll management is key, I wish him the best on his grind back…if it is really him and not someone else using his account ;-) A good healthy lifestyle with exercise, good food and socialising is also important. It will make you feel good and therefore give you a more positive outlook at the tables. Next, never think because you are a winning player that you can just keep on cruising without improving. Without trying to learn you will lose the sharpness and you can fall into bad habits. During my downswing I watched poker legend Martin Badger Boy play a session online. He played great poker and I was like, wow I’m calling with a small pair in that spot and I shouldn’t be. I started realise my own mistakes while he was playing solid winning poker. I realised I have got complacent and my game had got stale. The point is to keep learning and ahead of the game, which is adapting everyday. Stop loss, tilt control and taking breaks are vital. I hit stop loss and ‘felt’ fine the next day but in fact I wasn’t, I just didn’t realise it. When you hit stop loss, take a few days off and relax, don’t tilt. Think that is enough learnt from this month, I should be charging for this, it cost me thousands of dollars online and 71 hours of my life this month to learn this, lol.

Finally, if you have made it this far…congrats to Seb ‘Genius’ Powell on winning the links tourney at the grosvenor for £3k. Also legends Martin and Morgan both final tabled for nice scores. Morgan is a sick heads up (HU) sit n go player on Full Tilt and also a double boozy hero, already been banned from DTD, pokerLAD. Also, I’m going on the record now to say that Seb is not only a great guy but is a genius and an amazing poker player and it’s only a matter of time before he dominates the world online or live in the poker world. You read it here first ;-)

So, now I’m taking the last few days off of playing to relax. Went to see the new film The Town tonight with Nathan ‘PurchaseBOi’ Masters, it was awesome. Seeing family tomorrow and then I will get back on the grind at the start next month. I have fingers crossed for a better month in October, $10k month one time please?

Last of all, I just got a call from the Bagder to inform me that Toby ‘I run so bad I never win anything’ Lewis just won the EPT £1k side event in London for another large sum of cash, around £60k I believe, congrats mate wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Toby is a top lad and he’s winning the world, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy and hope he keeps on going. That’s back to back EPT wins for him, what a sicko. And I thought wining $146 this month was good, FML lol! I almost forgot, a big well done to Chris Brammer, the man they call NigDawg on coming 3rd in Sunday Brawl on Tilt for over $50k and then winning an EPT side turbo last night for £9k. I railed his FT on Tilt and it was a lesson in aggression, wp sir!

Good luck at the tables all and btw you need this song in your life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9_n8jakvWU.

JP

Well, I wish I could go back in time. Or at least find a small city that’s full of nice people.

Anyways, sorry I haven’t posted much lately, I’ve been busy and things have been kind of hectic, plus! I have friends now(;

Work is going great, car is running great, friends are amazing. Maybe I’ll have more time to post a more in-depth blog.

Sorry I haven’t posted lately. I’ve been having unbearable muscle pain in my neck and shoulder (thanks in part to a 13 month old who refuses to walk) combined with horrible tension headaches.

I self diagnosed and am also self-medicating……Hubby took the girls for lunch today so I could take a brief nap and also went to CVS to pick up Excedrin Tension, which works but only for 4-6 hours. I’m also taking a prescription I got a couple months back when I had some x-rays done for the neck/shoulder pain. I’m a little concerned though because after further research it turns out that the pill is an anti-depressant and also used to help with bed wetting…..WTF?!?!

Here’s to better days…….