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My new years resolution was to never write a blog  post when im drunk. However that resolution broke around 5.45 on the 1st Jan.. some of the ipb’ers crowd prob read it but i deleted it straight away when i woke up the next day . I actually read the first line the next day but i went crimson so i deleted the rest without even reading.

So im still in Malta. It must be one of the best countries in the world to live in. Its got the weather, its got the food, its got some ok nightlife, its got….no……. native good looking women, but at least it has alot of foreign women especially  shitloads from sweden!!!!

Anyways lets forget about the boatload of swedish women that have igonored me all year lets talk about the fun and fucked up stories that have happened to me over the course of the year

1. Ouch

I got the shit beat out of me by a Russian bouncer for trying to chat up an off duty manky pole dancer. Since then i have stopped trying to talk to any good looking women who looks 30+. It has worked out well, see below!!

2. Barred

I had to stop frequenting my favourite pub in st julians because i wrote a ridiculous drunken blog post that was found by the owner of that pub. I tried to apologize by buying a box of chocs and followed up by a verbal apology, but i was told in no uncertain ways by a fellow Irishman who was the bar manager that there was never going to be the right time or place (basically i was told to fuck off, even though i may have exaggerated abit in my blog post but 2 of the main points I made was 100% valid. ) to do so, so since then i have never gone back.

3. Results

I was profitable as a poker player but lifewise I made a loss! Im sure there are many people like me. I was lucky to have a good support system. I think that is why i never tried to play as much poker as i thought i should, anyways it looks like i spent around 6k euros out of my savings the past year, so I won 24k but i spent 30k so things really need to change, and i mean this poker game is getting tougher by the day, and there is way less fish to isolate.

4. Friends.

The first 6 months in Malta i met no one from Malta. However around May i got invited to meet some of the 2+2 30+ crowd. Turned out to be a great occasion as i have been close friends since. Due to this 2+2 connection i have gone out on the piss with loads of sound people including some famous names like ryan fees and justin bonomo. Fees is a sound bloke and got pissed so quickly on Guinness, while bonomo must think im a nutter after i said to him that the irish sterotype is pure bullshit, and within 5 mins i was involved in a retarded pushing fight!!

One of the best friendships i made was a IPB’er called Caf. One of the soundest blokes you could ever meet. The first day I meet him we went on a 2 day drinking session, and through that session he told me that by my online persona, he perceived me to be some dry cunt with absolutely no sense of humour.. Well I hope i proved that wrong. on that matter the reason I a boring online persona is due to the fat that it is hard to drop the seriousness out of any written posts if you have worked and scripted thousands of emails and documents in IT administration  over the past 10 years!

5. Love Life

I met a beautiful girl in Malta, alas she is not Maltese but a gorgeous girl from Doncaster, Yorkshire. I really dont want to move back to Ireland or Northern England so Im determined that 2012 will be an unbelievable year work and love wise and i can live here profitable with designs to staying here permanently!

So that’s all i can think off now. I hope by this my latest post i haven’t pissed off anyone in Malta and i hope that all my future posts will be insulated for maltese people so i dont loose out on any other entertainment benefits!!:-)

On a side note if anyone from IPB are caling over to Malta on holidays, please give me a shout and i will meet up for a few drinks

LaterHosen:-)

RBBlogger

So as nights go in Malta, it usually starts out in a restaurant if you are too lazy to cook, fuck it, sure 7.99 for a 3 course meal is a bargain. However after 8 hours of drinking, the bars eventually have to close. Therefore leaves a major question, Go home or Go to Pachville (Pachville being the woeful strip of dodgy nightclubs where all you can pick up is a beating or the clap.) So if your lucky you have picked up a girl to go back to your place before the Pachville question comes into being. This by the way is a lot harder than it seems. As good and all as is an Irish mans bullshit charm, it rarely ever works over here, however eventually it will pay off.. So for all you ugly Irish fuckers (me included), keep persisting, it does pay off in the end!

So to get back to the main title of the blog, I feel like I have been raped this past evening. I am terribly drunk here… but oh i could be so much worse. Because on the walk home from the pub at 3am, I asked for a bottle of Jameson.. no says the fella, no jameson here.. so i ask for JD, no says the fella, doesnt have it.. so I say , “have you got a bottle of Slashes(GNR fame, check out his autobiography) favourite drink Jim Beam.. the cheap mans Jack Daniels!”

The mudderfucker, says yes, here you go and hands me a botle of JB… Me not being used to these inferior bottles of whiskey thought it was the right stuff.. anyways.. i tried to drink it and I have never felt so violated in all my life.. its pure piss /dyke water… I d rather piss straight into my mouth.. I feel like it would be more of an accomplishment than drinking this JB shite. So for other Irish drunkards out there, JB whisky is not the same as Jim Beam Whiskey..

Wise Up And Watch Out.

</Drunken Post>

PS. Watch out for fat women who grab your balls and then  tell u they want to come home and ride you so hard you wont remember the summer…. the only thing you should remember after this is

1.  Never leaver your laptop unguarded

2. Never Ride a big fat mess

C:-)F

Its funny but when you live in Ireland you dont seem to run into too many weird people, but once you move abroad weirdos seem to pop up at every corner. Thankfully Malta isnt as bad as places like Thailand or Cambodia but still about 10 times more weirdos than Ireland!

Let me explain. I was out drinking a few weeks ago with a few poker playing friends I met through 2+2 and ended up down in Pachville (see image below)

Some of these friends had befriended a billionaires heir who had to flee Libya and move to Malta as his father was close friends with gaddaffi. The reason they asked this guy out on this night was the fact they knew he carries around a huge bag of narcotics which are usually hard to find on this tiny island.

anyways this guy is of Pakistani descent so I told him a story that when I was younger I was nicknamed “son of the Pakie bastard! as my father name was Pakie, short for Patrick. Ok I know it was kinda insensitive of me to mention this fact but I thought I explained the story enough that he knew that Pakie was a short name for Patrick. I never factored in that I had been drinking for two days straight and the story came out all wrong.

So he proceeded to stick his watch in my face and goes”you see this, it is worth 15k euros, you my friend only own a swatch watch”. I thought he was been very generous here as I dont even own a watch, let alone a swatch watch. However Im not one to back down and I said “Well my father owns 1000 swatch watch outlets across the UK and Ireland, so there”. this did not work so he started to berate me like a guy who had lost a buyin at 25nl. Thankfully I had the sense to move away from this lunatic before things got out of hand, however I did notice that he was on first names basis with all the bouncers on Pachville, so maybe next time I think of a story that may incite racial hate I d better think again!

Well as the title suggests, August didnt go very well for me. All my goals went out the window and I ended up making 2.5 buyins after rakeback. My worst official month since I started playing poker full time last November.
I blame in on the boozey month I had and just bad play in general. Im not going to blame it on running bad but just impatient play by myself and sometimes not taking the hand off the mouse for a few seconds to think through situations instead of auto calling with hands that have great absolute strength but generally weak relative strength.

This month started off great but today and yesterday has really smashed the shit out of me. Down €1.2k and I feel fucking useless at the moment. The games on the site I play have gotten alot harder but still I should be able to adjust to the new regs. However Im not putting enough effort in play analysing situations. Also yesterday i was like a retard paying of fish left right and centre and making bluffs that were continuously called. Some bluffs weren’t in great spots but others told a story well but was still called down.. I didn’t think my image at the table versus certain opponents was that bad but seemingly it is.

I need to work real hard now to get back to at least breakeven for the month and see if I can push on from there. This poker playing lark is not easy and to think im only at 100nl, imagine what the games will be like in 6 months time.. I feel dark thoughts in my mind that I may have to go back into the real world.. If anyone needs motivation to succeed that is it.

On to a brighter note, Ive friends calling over for 5 days on Tuesday. This will be my last big session til christmas and once christmas is over im going to re-evaluate the whole situation and hope my bankroll is still intact..

Well the last 5 days have been a nightmare for me, -20 buyins. So after my kick up the arse post last month I feel i need to do the same again this month.

I have analysed all my hands so far this month. I think i was getting complacent with the game after running hot last month. As always the mistakes keep on coming. My main ones this month revolve around 3 bet pots. Misreading spots where i had no dynamics built up and then in other spots playing too aggressively post flop versus players i had no notes on.

Add all that to running like shit and I’m down this month.

So im dropping back to 6 tables until i get out of this rut.

I also played some 150nl tables (yes they do exist!) and did bad there too, so looks like i wont be taking a shot at 200nl this month. I also have to sort out my bankroll as its all over the place at the moment in different accounts.

The only good thing about downswings is it makes you work hard at your game away from the tables….

btw that “Portugeuse Prodigy” Girah is some langer….

I see that I lost my last post “How am I still Winning” due to the migration to a new web host.

Well ever since that post (it was a kick in the arse type post where I detailed my biggest poker failings) I have gone on a very good run and have exceeded my expectations for the month. Combining rakeback and winnings I had just over a 50 buyin month so well pleased with that.

I just want to note down again where my biggest problems are at the moment with poker and what I have been working really hard on the past 2 weeks or so. Its good to keep a public record of it so I can revisit when I start into my next downswing and see if the same problems are emerging again.

MY 4 BIGGEST MISTAKES IN POKER

1. Paying off passive fish esp on river
2. Bluffing – basically not giving up on bluff when the board doesnt make sense and/or no read to support the follow up 3 barrel bluff
3. Making bad call downs on 3 b pots w/o reads
4. Thin Value – not squeezing out more thin value bets versus fish and/or straight up bad regs

I have also turned up my aggression preflop and my 3b stats have increased dramatically the past 2 weeks. I am pretty happy with that part of my game now, however we will see how good it is and how I adapt when I take a 10 buy in shot at 200nl next month. Im sure the games will be a bit more aggressive.

So here’s a review of my July goals

• play 60k hands of poker minimum – Passed 64k hands
• play poker every day in July- Passed
• No alcohol (have a prop bet set up to the tune of 500 euro for this) – Passed – This finishes tomorrow and i heading out once I get up for pints, 2pm! Really looking forward to that!
• Moving all my websites to new web host – Passed
• Redesign www.easypokergames.com to make it rank easier. – Passed
• Design new website non poker related – Passed, actually designed 2 more
• And the big one, no cigarettes for July! Already on day 2. – Passed

I also fit in a €110 deep stack 6 max tournament this month and once more I came close, knocked out in 7th, 5 got paid.. I was doing fine until down to final two tables and I was moved to the table where to my direct left was the massive chip leader and directly to my right was the other short stack.. So the other SS shoved his SB 100% v me, and I couldnt pick up any type of hand to call and then I had absolutely no fold equity when i was in the SB v the chipleader. Eventually went out on in 40/60 flip. I suppose not too bad considering im useless at tournaments. If anyone can recommend a video series or article on 500bb starting stacks but 20 minute blinds please leave a comment. I do think 6 max tournaments are the way to go. I really enjoyed the fact we were getting dealt way more hands per hour and also being involved in a lot more pots than usual 9 max shite..

So this is the first month I have passed all my goals and this was probably the hardest set of goals I have made since I got over here. I do wonder is it all down to alcohol that we never really get anything accomplished in life? My prop bet and results tends to add weight to this argument.. I will be drinking tomorrow but then I will be back to work Sunday or Monday and go hard at it again until I go to London for a weekend on the 26th August.

August  Goals

• 60k hands
• 10 buyin shot at 200nl
• 40 hrs work on non poker websites

So that’s it for now.

Thanks for reading

RBBLogger

Well there sure is a lot going on at the moment in the poker news world. I however havent been paying much heed to it or playing much poker due to the number of visitors i had last month. Yes June was family time as parents and brother arrived over at different times during the month. Also squeezed in was the visit of two good friends at the start of June.

So poker wise in June I played 15k hands and had a decent win rate which means after expenses I grew my bankroll by 2 buyins this month!! Woot Woo!

So even though I had a lot of visitors I had a lot of time to think while i was hungover and started devising plans for the next 4 months out here. I also spent alot of time reading and watching videos on all things relating to websites, SEO and internet marketing. It pains me to say this but I have wasted about 2 years developing a website that was never ever going to make substantial amounts of money organically which is vital for any online business. I then started another one without doing the fundamental research first. Luckily the new site only cost me 50 dollars to set up and I can easily fix that with a few days work.

But getting back to my original rakeback site. I started it because I love playing and writing about poker and thinking that content was king and google loves original content. Now this is even more so after Google’s latest “Panda” update which affected many shoddy websites with little to no relevant content.

However the problem is that no matter how good your content is, if it is not presented correctly on your website and then not backed up by relevant backlinking strategy then you are simply wasting your time having a website. You also need to ensure that the keywords that you want to rank highly for on google are not too competitive and therefore give you a realistic chance of ranking in the first page of google and more so in the top 3 spots.

Now also after all that has happened in the US, poker affiliates are being hit hard. All of my organic traffic was coming from the US which has now dried up. So this is leading me to go down another avenue and try and make some passive income from niche markets outside of poker. This time however I will be doing it by the book and not on a whim. Hopefully some hard work and a bit of luck I can make the new venture work and then rinse and repeat with other projects.

There is one thing though that I cannot forget, playing poker is my main source of income these days so thankfully I have a free month to grind like bejayzus.. This leads me on to my goals for this month

July Goals

• play 60k hands of poker minimum
• play poker every day in July
• No alcohol (have a prop bet set up to the tune of 500 euro for this)
• Moving all my websites to new web host
• Redesign www.easypokergames.com to make it rank easier.
• Design new website non poker related
• And the big one, no cigarettes for July! Already on day 2.

I think that’s all I want to cover for this month. I think it should be manageable. I must admit its really weird when you haven’t played poker for a while. I sometimes feel anxious going back to play my first session after a long break. But usually once I start I get addicted to the game again after one session. So thats what Im going to do now. Wish me luck.

Peace out

RBBLogger

As always Im late with my monthly update.

May Poker wise was pretty shitty. I only got in 30k hands in the 15 free days I had during May. I actually was playing 4 max for the majority of those hands. I just could not win there even though there were two fish per table.. so I was down about 10 buyins until i switched back to 6max and made 12 there so only made 2 buyins. However including rakeback and what not I made enough to cover my expenses for the month.. However all this means is Im still playing 100nl.

Heres the run down of last months goals

• 45k hands, FAILED 30k hands
• move up to 200nl once I win 10 buyins at 100nl this month, FAILED
• join a gym and go 3 times a week, Tues, Thurs and Sun, PASS but havent gone this month as I have more visitors
• Launch new website www.easypokergames.com PASSED, launched but still some small bits to fix, including the email address not working correctly
• No drinking until the 25th May, PASSED
• 25 1 hour sessions without a mistake, FAILED

So June is completely scrapped for me. Visitors left on the 3rd June, new ones arrived on the 6th, leave on the 17th and then my brother arrives on the 20th and leave on the 27th.

I think I have played about 5k hands so far this month and will be lucky to get 15k hands in this month. Therefore I am banning any visitors for the months of July and August and will be grind central for me then. I may take a break in August and head to London for a weekend, but other than that I will be playing non stop.

Weather here in Malta is unreal. Definitely confirms to me that I made the right move to come out here. I have noticed though with all the visitors I have had lately that I am getting kinda sick of the main nightlife area (called Paceville). I also want to discourage anyone from going out in Bugibba at night time. Was there last night and restuarants are shit there and the clientele in the bars is something you would find out of Eastenders. When I see tattoo covered grannys in mini skirts knocking back tequilas I know its time to move on to another area.

Today Limerick are playing Waterford in the Munster Hurling Semi Final. Im really looking forward to this after the shit storm that was Limerick Hurling last year. I think a shock could be in store for Waterford who are 2/5 favs which I think is priced wrong. Im not going to bet on Limerick as I dont want to jinx it but I will be down in the Dubliner pub early to get in some grub and a bucket load of Guinness and find a good seat to roar on the Limerick boys.

Well, Last month was my best month in Malta, not just from a poker perspective but from an overall life balance as well. Life is pretty sweet here at the moment. The weather is amazing and its hard to understand how anyone could live in Ireland when you can live in conditions like this. I know Ireland has so many plus points but fuck the weather is unbearable!

I have also meet some really sound people through two plus two. Its good to finally meet people who are in the same boat as me and great to catch up during the month for beers, dinner, chat, laughs etc.

I had two sets of visitors that arrived the end of last month and left the 10th of this month. It was a fun 2 weeks that i took off from poker and I got to see the rest of the sights in Malta. I finally made it over to Gozo  which only has 29k inhabitants. The island itself is picturesque (of course I never took my camera!! but will do next time). If I was a hippie and wanted to live a quiet life I think that is where I would move to. Its only 2o mins on a ferry from Malta so not too far from some sort of civilisation.

I also tried out some of the best restuarants on the island. Blue Elephant in the Hilton is a thai fine dining restuarant. Well worth a visit, food is amazing and the decor and service is outstanding.

Also if in Valetta, try out a tiny restuarant on Merchant St called La Mere. A great place to have some savage food and a shit load of wine! A great way to start off an afternoon..

I also went to a Japanese restaurant for the first time. The name escapes me now but is the marina in St Julians.  This was my favourite restaurant of the lot. The flavours in the food  I got was like nothing I experienced before. I’ll defo be trying out more Japanese cuisine.

A final recommendation is a snack/dessert restaurant called Mint on Tower Road in Sliema. Chocolate Brownie is unreal. Prop bets to see if anyone can eat two of these..

Anyway here were my goals for last month

• 60k hands minimum  - Failed, only 53k
• 20 1 hour blocks without a mistake – Whohoo!! Pass, 23 sessions without a mistake
• Cut number of mistakes by 50% from March’s Figure – Fail, only reduced it by 2 buyins
• Get at least 3 live cash games in, Fail only got 2 in
• no vodkas and redbull, PASS
• wear fucking sun protection cream if I go out in the sun or buy a hat, PASS kinda

So end result for April including rakeback was +35 buyins

I only have 15 days to play poker this month as I have visitors arriving on the 25th May. My next two visitors are party animals so its gonna be some hectic time thats for sure. Hopefully we can stay out of trouble:-) and following that I have my parents coming over for two weeks. I dont know how much poker I can try and get in for June but we’ll wait and see. Im might try and get 3  hours a day if possible in June but I’ll talk about that in next months goals.

May Goals

• 45k hands
• move up to 200nl once I win 10 buyins at 100nl this month
• join a gym and go 3 times a week, Tues, Thurs and Sun
• Launch new website www.easypokergames.com
• No drinking until the 25th May
• 25 1 hour sessions without a mistake

I already joined the gym last Thursday and have got 2 cardio workouts in. I have been given a weights program so going to start that next week. I really need to bulk up a bit. Even the women in the gym have bigger biceps than me!

A final thing I want to mention. As you know Merge Poker Network is abandoning rakeback from the 1st June 2011. So to any IPB’ers reading this who want a “professional deal” please contact me on Irish Poker Boards before that and I will set it up for you and fill you in on all the details. My username is  RBBlogger on IPB.

Also if you check out my new website, you will see I am promoting a site on the ENET Italian Poker Network. I really don’t want to let the cat out of the bag as my winrate has doubled since I started playing there (and Im not running above EV). I have met the owner of the skin as he lives in Malta and everything seems in order. I have come to an arrangement with him and am now an official agent for the site.  I can offer a substantial deal here for any IPB’ers,  so contact me for more details through RBBlogger on IPB.

Thats it, time to go out and get some more freckles!

March Goals

• 60k hands – Failed only got in 52.5k
• Go 20 sessions without a mistake – Failed only did 12 once and 14 twice
• Stick to 1 hour sessions unless games are unbelievably good – Failed.

I got myself into a deep hole in the first few days in March and was down 15 buyins. Took me the rest of the month to get out so another rakeback month. So made just under 20 buyins. I made 17 buyins worth of mistakes that could easily have been avoided so will be looking to bring that number down a good bit for April.  My second half of the month was good so happy with the progress.

I also have visitors over for St Paddys day and weekend and also the last few days of the the month so that curtailed the number of hands I got in.

St Patricks day was bleedin mental over here. Spinola bay at the bottom of the hill before you head into Paceville,  St Juilans was packed with people and I didnt see any other Irish people bar our group. One of the barman was telling me that this is their best day of the year for sales and I dont doubt him. And at last I got to see some real Maltese talent on show. I was beginning to wonder where all the good looking women were hiding. It reminded me of when I was in UCC and there was never any good looking women to be seen until the summer time when they just arrived out of no where!

Weather is really started to pick up as well and I got badly burned on the 3rd day drinking last week. I was too worried about trying to drink enough alcohol to get rid of my hangover that I forgot to put on some sun cream.  Also got a bad dose today just walking around.

I dont have any visitors now until 28th April, therefore a clear run at the month so here are my goals for April

• 60k hands minimum
• 20 1 hour blocks without a mistake
• Cut number of mistakes by 50% from March’s Figure
• Get at least 3 live cash games in
• no vodkas and redbull
• wear fucking sun protection cream if I go out in the sun or buy a hat

and thats it! Laters