Yorky Pud

The World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event has reached the final table after the 24 players who returned to the San Jose based casino yesterday afternoon where whittled down to just six. Just two weeks ago were were eagerly anticipating the final table of the LA Poker Classic but this could eclipse it.

Although relatively unknown both Alan Sternberg and Casey McCarrel have some impressive live tournament results and the overnight chip leader, Steven Kelly, won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2010. However, when play resumes at 1600 (0000GMT) this afternoon all eyes will be on the “big three.” Vivek Rajkumar has made back-to-back WPT final tables putting him an exclusive group with the likes of John Juanda, Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Ivey, and is now looking for his second WPT title.

These four players will be joined by a true legend of the game in Mike Sexton. The one-time WSOP bracelet winner was inducted into this year's Poker Hall of Fame and is looking to take down his first World Poker Tour event. Although he regularly cashes at the WSOP (47 career cashes) this result represents only his second cash in a WPT event, though he has only played in 16 of them so far. Regardless of where he finishes when play resumes he is guaranteed that his live tournament winnings will surpass $4,000,000.

Making up the sextet is none other than the larger-than-life character that is Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, who proclaimed that “It's my time boys and girls! It's my time!” as he eliminated the seventh place finisher Ty Reiman to seal his fifth WPT final table, though he is yet to close one out. Matusow has had a torrid time at the tables in live tournaments over the past couple of years having only cashed for around $135,000 since his great 2008 which saw him net over $1,330,000, including winning his third WSOP bracelet. Could this be the tournament that reignites Matusow's passion for the game?

Each of the six remaining players will walk away with at least $148,000 and the pay increases quite substantially with each player eliminated. Fifth place is worth an extra $73,800 whilst fourth place pays out $295,800. A third place finish will net the lucky player a $369,800 and the runner-up takes home $595,300. This year's winner will walk away with no less than $1,039,000 and the possibility of an extra $10,000 if they are responsible for knocking out Messrs Sexton and Matusow, who still have $5,000 bounties on their heads.

When the famous words of “shuffle up and deal” are announced the players will play with blinds of 10,000/20,000 and a running ante of 3,000 and will be seated as follows:

Seat 1: Mike Matusow: 2,173,000
Seat 2: Mike Sexton: 363,000
Seat 3: Alan Sternberg: 3,701,000
Seat 4: Vivek Rajkumar: 1,616,000
Seat 5: Steven Kelly: 4,169,000
Seat 6: Casey McCarrel: 430,000

The World Poker Tour Bay 101 event is one of the most eagerly anticipated stops on the WPT circuit thanks to the unique format that is played out. At the start of each of the Day 1's there is a “Shooting Star” placed on each table, which is a well-known professional poker player who has a $5,000 bounty on their head, making for an interesting dynamic to the tournament.

Both Day 1's were also played to 60 minute blinds in order to help reduce the field size to a more manageable level but on subsequent days the blinds levels increase to 90 minutes to give a little more room to manoeuvre for the players. Day 1a saw 142 players take to the felt, including 19 Shooting Stars and 57 of them survived the day with chip stacks intact, of which nine were shooting stars. Day 1b saw a bigger crowd of 273 entrants take their seats, with 26 of those being Shooting Stars, and by the time play drew to a close for the day only 117 players (nine bounties) managed to make it through to Day 2.

This meant 170 players returned to the San Jose based casino with a chance of winning one of eighteen $5,000 bounties and the $1,039,000 first place prize. Of the 170 hopefuls only 45 of them were due to be paid meaning the dreaded 46th place was the official money bubble. Nobody wants to be the one to burst the bubble so please spare a thought for Layne Flack who was the man to op it and the last man to go home empty handed. In his final hand he saw the player under the gun raise to 10,500 with blinds at 2,000/4,000/500a and Matthew Berkey call from the small blind. Looking down at JdJs, Flack decided to move all in for a total of 33,500 chips, which was enough to fold out the initial raise by Berkey called holding AcKd. The final board ran out Qc-Ts-2s-4h-Kh eliminating Flack and awarding everyone else at least $15,000. Although Flack will not receive any prize money he did collect three bounties during his time at the felt so does not exactly go home empty handed.

As is usually the case once the bubble has burst there was a flurry of eliminations and within three hours the 45 remaining players were reduced to the final 24, at which point the tournament was paused until 1200 noon Los Angeles time today. Sat atop of the chip counts is Joris Springael who has almost three times the average stack with 1,477,000 chips at his disposal. He is joined in the top three by Alan Sternberg and Vivek Rajkumar, the latter finishing as runner-up at the recent WPT LA Poker Classic.

Each player is now guaranteed $25,800 and there are still three $5,000 bounties on the heads of Kathy Liebert, Mike Sexton and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, but by the time the final table of six is reached later today they will all be walking away with at least $148,000 and a realistic shot at the $1,039,000 winner's prize.

When I first started playing online poker I had absolutely no idea software such as Poker Tracker and Holdem Manager existed (Holdem Manager had not been created back then but let us not dwell on it) but when I discovered it I was in awe at the plethora of statistics it could create for me. As a self confessed geek I was the kid in the proverbial sweetshop.

A little further down the line I discovered Heads-Up Displays (HUDs for short) and was even more amazed. Not only could I look at all these amazing statistics but I could not display them, in real time, next to my opponents. I was going to take over the poker world! Obviously that did not happen but using a HUD has become a big part of my online game and something that has paid for itself dozens of time over.

Gone are the days where you had to purchase the HUD separately, now both Poker Tracker and the vastly superior (my opinion) Holdem Manager come with a built-in HUD for your pleasure. In the right hands a HUD can be a powerful weapon in your arsenal but unless you spend some time learning how to use it properly then it can have a serious negative effect on your game and will cost you money.

The first obstacle HUD users need to cross is what statistics they want displaying on their screens at any one time. There will be some people who will use the same HUD regardless of what their usual game is but you really should be looking to create a HUD that is specific to the game and discipline you are playing. For example, I have one HUD layout for short-handed no limit Hold'em, one for pot limit Omaha, one of heads-up games and another from when I used to play MTTSNG. Each game is different, requires a different skill set to beat and therefore a different set of statistics on show to help you make your decisions.

As short-handed Hold'em is the more popular of the games I mentioned I will spend the next couple of articles going through what statistics I have displayed as I play, why I have chosen these particular credentials over others, what they mean and how to interpret them.

The GSOP VI was a roaring success with massive prizepools being awarded in each of the 15 events. As always, the only place to play these amazing series' is on Betfair Poker because of the exclusive promotions that we offer to our valued customers.

The GSOP VI Hat Trick promotion saw Betfair players hit the tables in their droves in the hope of securing a Betfair LIVE! Tallin package for being one of the first ten people to cash in three separate events or get their hands on $100,000 worth of sponsorship for reaching the top three in three different GSOP VI tournaments.

There was a tie for the "In the money" Hat Trick promotion so the management added an extra Betfair LIVE! Tallin seat as a goodwill gesture. Those who will be heading to Estonia are darkspewos2, Doobs, Jagshemash, paymybils, evgenys, fergie28, General_Pooh, iloveaas85, littleABJ, LV ZVEZDA and MaxxsslvrH. Congratulations and the very best of luck for the tournament in Tallin.

Anyone who bought into or won a satellite into three GSOP VI events automatically received a ticket to the GSOP Reunion Freeroll where 30 tickets to the GSOP Mini Grand Slam will be up for grabs, with a value of $525 each! A staggering 293 of you will be fighting for these tickets, a fantastic turnout. Special mentions must go to Betfair Poker regulars __dp__ and E_V_V_O who both played in all 15 events.

Unfortunately nobody scooped the $100,000 sponsorship package for placing in the top three payout places in three different GSOP VI events but one man came agonisingly close. Step forward deba50 who won Event #6, the $190+$10 Pot Limit Omaha tournament for a cool $14,200 and a $5,000 Grand Slam ticket before finishing in 23rd place in Event #16 fo a further $1,444. Then to cap it all off he came second in Event #15, the $500,000 Guaranteed No Limit Hold'em event for a career best score of $60,330, taking his haul for the series to an impressive $80,974. What is even more impressive is that he only played in eight of the events yet still managed to achieve these incredible results.Well played that man!

One of our Czech collegues caught up with the Betfair Poker GSOP VI Most Valuable Player and asked him a few questions. Here is the translated interview in full:

How long have you played Poker for?

I have played Poker about 2-3 years. I am not a professional player, I play casually. Sometimes I play 5 tournaments a day, sometimes 1 per month. It depends on the mood and free time.

What's your usual strategy and how would you describe your game play?

Poker is a beautiful game. Many people claim the most important is the math, some say it's all about luck, whereas I think the most important part is the mind. My strategy is simple - very closely watch the opponent, try to identify their mistakes and take advantage of them.

What did you expect from GSOP Series when you decided to join?

I expected many experiences, adrenalin rush and interesting hands. I am competitive person and so I like such events. GSOP is an excellent series, which many great players attend. I wanted to measure my skills with them, to find out how good I really am. I never expected such success and I am now very happy.

Could you share some information about the very last hand in tournament 15?

Uuff. That was a disaster. I got to heads-up with player 'eytyhis1'. He was the only player I played with, who didn't show any weaknesses in his game play. I did not know how to play against him. The tournament went over the whole night so I wanted to finish it ASAP, and so I chose an extremely aggressive strategy. I knew he is very good player and I thought he would try to 'post flop' me and not want to call my all-in preflop. I played aggressively I had won couple minor banks, and frankly I don't remember the very last game. I remember, that I bluffed on the Turn and went all-in, thinking that if the opponent doesn't have completed flush from 10 so he will fold, but he already had flush from Queen and after few seconds of hesitation he called my all-in.

That was the last game which wouldn't let me sleep. I was extremely happy, on the other hand, for the 2nd place, but I was also very disappointed how badly I played the 'head-up'. These are the moments we love the game for. I have to say that 'eytyhis1' deserved to win more than I did.

What were your biggest winnings in Poker before GSOP?

Like I said, I am not a professional Poker player and so I haven't played many significant tournaments. I can't think of any big winnings at the moment, I only remember I won about $2-$3k in the past. I just did my personal best which will be hard to beat.

My first big winnings were at GSOP Event #6 Omaha Pot Limit, where I won $19,000. Then I placed 2nd in NLH, where I got about $60,000. I don't see I will beat this amounts anytime soon. I also won a ticket to Gland Slam Final and so I hope I will play a quality Poker and possibly win something.

What are you going to buy for your winnings?

I have already spent a bit. I've got two small children so I decided to buy safe family car. Just couple moments ago I ordered Volvo XC60 which I always wanted. GSOP tournament sort of made my dream come through.

So there you have it, yet another great success story on Betfair Poker. The very best of luck to those in the GSOP Reunion Freeroll tonight and of course we wish all the best to deba50 when he takes his seat in the $5,000 GSOP VI Grand Slam!

If the vast majority of people I spoke to on the phone told me I had created a bubble inside a fantasy land, that I was not as good at poker as I thought I was and that I had a superiority complex then I would probably swear at them before hanging up and having a rant at the cheek of some people. However, this actually happened to me on Friday evening and it could well be the best thing anybody has ever told me. My apologies in advance but this is going to be quite a long post rather than breaking it up into two parts.

I mentioned in the previous post that Jared Tendler, the renowned poker mental coach, had agreed to write a guest post on here or do an interview with me but those plans were altered at the last minute after he asked if I would be interested in him giving me a mini session that I could write up on here. Of course I agreed instantly and we decided that 1900 on Friday night would be the best time for us both.

In true Pudding style I ended up being around 15 minutes late after being stuck in rush hour traffic on my way to picking up Pud Jr but Jared was very understanding and when we cracked on he explained how he had skimmed through the Pud On Tilt articles I had written and by doing so he had found some common faults in my attitude towards the game, my opponents and my self belief. The first thing that struck me, before he had even asked me any questions, was how relaxed I felt from the onset. It was like I was talking to an old friend rather than a complete stranger, which in essence is what Jared is to me. A combination of his accent and tone put me at ease and there was an air of positivity straight away, I knew good things were going to come of the session.

The first question he asked me was what the major triggers of my tilt were to which I replied I still attach a monetary value to my chips so when I lose 100BB I am actually losing $50 but I also admitted that I feel that I am better than the majority of micro-stakes players due to my knowledge of the game and that it almost feels as if it is my right to win. Jared then mentioned my “the grass is always greener” mentality with me changing what games I play and which sites I play on, informing me that doing so was almost wishing something was true and that I was essentially living in a fantasy world that I had created, a world where I was better than my opponents and that I had some control over the short term fluctuations caused by poker. Then the thing that really stood out was when he said my anger, which turns to tilt, is caused by the realisation that my fantasy world does not exist, that I am not as good as I think I am and that I have less control over the situation than I would like. Basically, the protective bubble I have placed around myself gets burst.

I have never thought of it like that but it is completely true, 100%. Just because I have the knowledge in my head about the game does not give me the right to think I am better than my opponents. The only time I can think that is when I have proven over a significant sample size that this is indeed the case. Looking at some of the hands I have played recently, I have made calls and plays simply because “a typical NL50 player wouldn't be able to call with X hand” but low and behold they have. Underestimating my opponents has been a big leak.

We moved on and talked briefly about how the brain actually works when it is storing information in it and that what you have properly mastered is actually kept in a different part to the brain of things that you only know or are aware of. The area of the brain where the mastered subjects are kept is not influenced by emotions but the other part is, which is why when you are under pressure and your emotions are running high you often feel unable to think clearly, analyse a situation properly and make the correct decision. This is pure and simply because you have not mastered these elements, you are only aware of them.

This lead Jared to ask me what I think I do correctly when I am on tilt and at th time I only answered starting hand selection because I was quite taken aback and had some sort of light-bulb moment from what was said right at the beginning of the session. Jared then told me that this meant I had mastered starting hand selection but the rest of the elements of poker I was still actually learning and what I had mastered were simply feelings of injustice. Like I say, there are other elements to my game that I still do to a good standard when I am under pressure or on tilt but the one that is always clouded is my hand reading, which I actually thought was a strong part of my game. Obviously not, well not when I am flustered anyway. Again, quite eye opening for me.

Jared then explained how I could start to eliminate tilt and reduce the effect my emotions have on my game by creating a profile of sorts about my pattern of tilt. He informed me that there is not one person on the planet who can control the point where their emotions have taken control but you can learn to prevent matters from ever getting that far in the first place. The first is to recognise the earliest signs you are slipping into the depths of tilt, which for me is becoming uncomfortable in my seat, stretching and taking a deep breathe which is usually followed by a resigned sigh. Jared then said that the deep breathe is a good thing to do but instead of it being a negative sigh where you have resigned yourself to the fact something has happened, you are taking several deep breathes to regain focus and retake control of the situation.

Once I have essentially calmed down and removed that initial anger from the foremost of my thoughts I have been told to read out some statements that are yet to be stuck to my monitor, though it is on my to-do list I promise Mr Tendler! One of my personal statements is “put the loss into perspective” as at the end of the day losing is just part and parcel of poker and what is the worst that actually happens apart from my account balance drops a few digits? Another is one that Jared came up with and that is “I don't control when I get paid, I control how I play,” which again is very true. Once I have gone through these statements there are also some technical statements to remind me of how to play properly, which sounds silly but it basically gives you a wake up call, tells your brain to sort itself out and pushes you towards the right path again. We didn't cover these in our session but since then I have thought of some which I have already used. As my tilt usually sees me becoming a passive calling station one of mine is “aggression is key to winning at poker.”

Jared's words really opened my eyes and despite talking for less than an hour I already feel completely different about my own game and about the game of poker as a whole. It may be coincidence but yesterday was the first time I had played since talking to Jared and it was also my first winning day in a week. I felt at ease at the table, more in control but I suppose the real test will come when a massive bad beat takes place but I am ready for the challenge!

For those interested in contacting Jared you can do so through his website, Jared Tendler Poker, where you can read some recent articles of his, join in the mental game forum and book sessions with the man himself. Obviously a man of his talents and expertise carries a premium but for the poker player who is tilting away hundreds of dollars a month or the player who is struggling with the mental side of the game Jared is more than worth it and I will most certainly be booking some more time once my bankroll allows it. He has also written a book with Barry Carter called “The Mental Game of Poker” which has a target release date of April 12, just in time for my birthday! Or if you are a total tight ass you can read some of his work in WPT Magazine each month for only £3.00 or you could just read the magazine and put it back on the shelf!

I'd like to thank Jared for the session and hopefully the next few blogs from yours truly will be full of mentions on how I have put the tilt monster to bed and am confidently moving up stakes and mastering more skills instead of just knowing them.

The Two Plus Two poker forums are usually awash with rumours that Player A won X amount of dollars in next to no time but almost all of them disappear without most people giving them a second thought. However, one such rumour appeared in January that simply refused to go away.

The person informed the online poker community of an 18-year old Portuguese poker player who had won around $2,000,000 from a tiny deposit and as usual the claims were refuted. The poster also mentioned that this particular player had received coaching from the likes of Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, which pricked up the ears of many people but due to the nature of the post, which seemed as if the poster was too obsessed with trying to track down this Portuguese youngster, most swept it under the carpet and dismissed the claims.

However, on the evening of Wednesday 2 March a poster by the name of “Girah” started a thread in which he claimed to be the so-called Portuguese Poker Prodigy. Although he said that he was under strict instructions from his lawyers not to publish his online alias' he did post a screenshot of his last 817,379 hands played, which shows him at a staggering $1,624,044.95 profit! He went on to reveal that he has made all of this money from an initial $30 deposit on Betfair Poker using good bankroll management and playing a phenomenal amount of hands.

His name is Jose Machado, an 18-year old who became fascinated with the game a couple of years ago when he read Tom “durrrr” Dwan's story of rags to riches and he went out of his way to emulate him. After racking up a ton of experience playing for play money and on the Facebook poker site Zynga, Machado managed to convince his mother to let him use her credit card and deposit $30 online, and he has never looked back.

Despite only playing $0.01/$0.02 in the first instance, he managed to grind up this $30 to $2,500 within a month and was quickly playing $0.50/$1. His meteroic rise continued until he reached the dizzy heights of NL1000, with blinds of $5 and $10, where he says he struggled to break through. At this point he set out to get tips and coaching from the very best in the game including Cates and Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky, which helped him to push through and win more than $280,000 at this level. He has since continued his climb and is a regular at the $25/$50 and $50/$100 heads-up No limt Hold'em games.

As you would expect the extremely talented youngster is in high demand right now but here at Betfair Poker, where he first cut his teeth in the world of real money online poker, we have been in contact with the Portuguese Isildur1 and he has agreed to answer a few questions for you readers, which should hopefully appear here in the next few days.

Last year I logged onto my Facebook account to find I had received a message from Barry Carter, who I knew off from reading his blog and his articles in a number of poker magazines I read. In this message he informed me that PokerNews were on the look out for bloggers / writers to cover the European Poker Tour Main Events and would I be interested in throwing my hat into the ring.

Of course the answer was yes and after meeting with Gloria Balding and the team at the World Series of Poker Europe in London I was asked to do a small trial at the then upcoming WPT London Main Event. I must have done OK because I was soon asked to cover EPT Barcelona followed by EPT Prague and in a few days I fly to Salzburg for EPT Snowfest. PokerNews also cover the WSOP in Las Vegas and although no decision has been made to which of the European bloggers will be helping to report on the 58 bracelet events we have all been placed under massive scrutiny and whoever does travel to Sin City will have to follow some ridiculous new rules put in place by the powers that be, namely Harrah's and the suits in charge of the WSOP.

Two new rules have come into force which are almost unbelievable and would not look out of place in some April Fool's spoof press release. The first rule, which apparently is for the “integrity of the tournament and the security of our players and staff” is that no one member of the media will be allowed at any given table for more than five minutes per half hour! Seriously, I kid you not. Do these people not realise that viewers / readers at home want to know how the big names are getting on and do they not realise that most of the time bloggers are scanning tables for potential action and when that big hand does go down they often take more than five minutes. If Ivey is in a massive pot and my five minutes is up when the action is still on the turn do I have to leave and not report on the hand? Quite frankly it's a joke.

The second rule is also just as laughable is the zero tolerance stance the tournament staff are going to take on talking to the players, that is right, members of the media are not allowed to engage in the art of talking to players. As mentioned in the previous paragraph a large percentage of poker bloggers' time is spent looking for interesting hands and sometimes you miss all the details and the players are, generally, helpful in that they will let you know how the hand went down or if there has been anything worth reporting on in terms of funny anecdotes etc. Honestly, what are they going to do if I ask Daniel Negreanu how he won a huge stack of chips? Will the eject me from the tournament area and will they throw out “Kid Poker” from the event he is in?

All of this stems from the recent cheating scandal at the Partouche Poker Tour where Ali Tekintamgac, who actually won WPT Barcelona, was accused of using fake bloggers who would look at his opponents hole cards and then signal to him the strength of their holding. He was also accused of this at EPT Tallin and asked to leave the tournament by the excellent Tournament Director Thomas Kremser. He then had the bare-faced cheek to try his cheating again in a Dutch tournament where he stood out like a sore thumb because his “reporting team” were the only Germans in the room!

So I ask the question why should the people reading the updates and why should the poker media's job become more difficult, and less enjoyable, just because of this tiny group of scumbags? I have worked with hundreds of people in my lifetime and I can hand on heart so none are as honest and discrete as the people I walk the tournament floors with at these events. I am sure they are all the same as me in that I do not even try to look at the holecards of players, even if they seemingly try their best to show you them sometimes! My reaction to seeing some holecards, be it a facial expression or simply moving to another table out of disinterest could completely alter the game so I never look at the cards until they are on show to all. I am even careful not to move, scratch, or even adjust my glasses during a hand so that I cannot, and therefore my fellow members of the poker media cannot, be accused of any wrong doing.

I put it to Harrah's and the WSOP that the problem does not lie with the poker media but the accreditation of the poker media. PokerNews' bloggers, such as Chris Hall, Jen Mason and Dana Immanuel have been travelling the circuit for years and there are others who are always at these events such as the PokerStars team and Benjo from Winamax are Harrah's saying these guys are dishonest because if they are then it is an absolute disgrace. Myself and Lee Davy started doing EPT's at the same time and were both referred by Barry Carter, himself a respected guy in this industry, and both of us have plenty of work published online to help prove our legitimacy. Surely with the financial clout Harrah's have they could employ someone to vet each application from wannabe media people and see if their credentials check out and they are who they say they are.

Harrah's are just looking for a quick fix that is going to cause even more problems than it cures. Rather than just chopping the head of the week why not dig its roots up and have it disappear completely. Sort out the accreditation process properly and the 0.01% of scum who would cheat will not be able to even set foot in the front door of the casino. /rant

This is probably the last in the series on tilting and it will go through how I personally prevent myself from going on tilt and the steps I took to try an change my own mindset and beliefs about the game. As with the previous articles I do not proclaim to be a tiltless play, nor am I an expert on tilting but the dreaded tilt is something I have been trying to eradicate from my own game, a battle I have thought and sharing it with you may help you to eliminate it from your own game.

Something that has helped my mental game immensely is being able to talk to players who are much better than me or who simply play many more hands than I do. Reporting on the European Poker Tour events has let me see how the best players in the world handle themselves and some of them are kind enough to take a few minutes to talk about the game with you. I am also fortunate enough to be able to discuss poker with a number of high volume players, some of who play 2,000,000 or more hands a year. It is quite embarrassing when I moan at them about running bad etc and they just sweep it under the carpet as they basically see 10-15 buy in downswings on a weekly or monthly basis so a simple AA losing to KK for 200BB is nothing at all.

If you don't have access to these players then join a forum like Two Plus Two, whilst most members will just ignore you when you contact them, others are willing to talk to you or at least point you in the direction of some good literature. Even if they don't do that you can read some of the stories in the “Brags, Beats and Variance” forum as they will really open your eyes to how good and bad you can run in the short term.

My biggest tilt trigger was losing in the short term as it made me attach a monetary value to my losses and it lead to me feeling like I had been robbed for want of a better description, like it was my right to win the pots I played. The way I personally have prevented this is to play with a larger than recommended bankroll so that when I do lose a stack or a couple of stacks it is rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Something else that I have made myself do is to go through my hand histories and filter hands where I won as a huge underdog or when I won a coinflip and you should do the same because you will be surprised at how many hands you win with this criteria. Humans seem to remember the so called injustices against them but then put down the times they win to good play on their part or because they feel they deserved to suck out due to the number of times it has happened to them in the past, so reminding yourself that you do sometimes get lucky yourself helps to take the sting out of losing as a big favourite.

The problem many people have is not stopping themselves from tilting but actually recognising they are slipping into tilt or are actually on tilt before it is too late and the damage is done. Anyone can sit out for an hour or two when they have just lost a stack then tilted off another couple of buy-ins but if you learn to recognise the signs you are about to tilt you can leave and calm down before the demons come out to play. Everyone is different but the signs I am starting to lose control of my emotions or at least that a result or something has affected me at the tables is I take a deep breath through my nose, usually followed by a sigh and now and then a few expletives! I'll often reach behind my head and stretch or stretch my arms and hands out in front of me or crack my knuckles. I am sure there are psychological reasons for these actions, I just don't know them.

Two non-physical factors start to come into play too, first I feel a sense of injustice has been done rather than just sweeping the loss to one side which leads to me attaching a monetary value to the chips I have just lost, so instead of getting on with the task in hand I will think that I should have won that hand and that I could have taken the kids to the zoo with the money or something similar. As soon as any of these signs begin to show I consciously tell myself that it is part of the game, that I got my money in good and that is all you can do and to get on with it. If my little routine does not work I simply sit out when the blinds reach me and take a break, sometimes for a couple of minutes, sometimes a few hours, sometimes even a couple of days, however long it takes to begin thinking like a poker player again.

This has got a little TLDR so I will leave it here and go and ask Jared Tendler if he would like to do a little interview or a guest post on here as he is the one true expert on all psychological matters in this crazy industry!

Most poker players really look forward to the Sunday grind where the big tournaments take place and the fishes are out in force, but not me. The past six Sundays have seen me end my session with less money than I started with and I honestly cannot put my finger on way.

Variance obviously has a part to play because I don't play all that much but I can't help but think there is something else there too. Maybe the fact I have had losing sessions on previous Sundays somehow gets into my psyche and mindset and makes me play differently to how I usually do, I don't know. Looking at last night's hand histories and statistics I played 520 hands and lost $38.89, which is bugger all in the grand scheme of things really but I don't like losing! To add insult to injury I should have lost $91.20 if the cards fell the way they should so I lost despite running good, marvellous.

I'm still up for the month, $174.93 up to be exact but I have only fit in 1,428 hands so far in the six days of March that have been and gone. When I see how little I play it makes me chuckle at how someone accused me of being a gambling addict the other week, the man who plays at most 10-15k hands a month and has taken five years to grow a pair of balls big enough to play $0.25/$0.50! Of course it was a non-poker playing fish who came out with this lol-tastic accusation, the type of person who won't see that I finished almost $650 up last month they'd just as “but how much did you lose?”

I had some great fun with 38 kids on Saturday which makes me sound like Gary Glitter but I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. Although I live in Huddersfield I hardly no anywhere around here and I was surprised to find a laser quest type place a couple of weeks ago by complete accident so Pud Jr and I went on Saturday. It's great, like real life Call of Duty except with 38 kids running around there is no need for tactics or anything even remotely like but some of the little gits were like crack elite special forces, talking about pincher movements, covering fire and getting to sniping positions! I should have started pistol whipping the little sods to improve my score, though I did come 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th but there again I did have 20 years on most of them! It gave me the urge to go paint balling again as I went years ago and loved it and there are some places now that make a big deal out of it, give you proper missions and have real enemy troops etc. Yes I am a big nerd!

On a more negative note the phenomenon known as “Pudding Luck” where if it wasn't for bad luck you wouldn't have any has struck again. First Mrs Pud's laptop gave up the ghost and it was only £50 more to get her a new one than it was to repair it, now my car's exhaust manifold is blowing and needs replacing, as do the front brakes which would cost more than what the car is worth. Add to that Baby Pud decided it would be a good idea to spill a tin of gloss paint on the living room carpet at 0620 Saturday morning and now my old man has been stung with a £6.5k tax bill after he was given some piss poor advice by an independent financial advisor. As Doyle Brunson said in his blog last week that a lot of this is not really significant and if you have your health then you should be grateful.

Plans for this week are to log plenty of hands, ideally I'd like to be at at least 3,000 hands by the time Sunday comes and goes, 5,000 would be ideal but also highly unlikely in all honesty but you never know, us gambling addicts like to put in the hours!

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

Poker players are known to go on winning streaks but rarely are they as epic as the heater that Erik Seidel is currently experiencing. He is running so good that it is almost criminal and it has seen him win $4,342,283 so far in 2011!

Seidel's amazing year so far began with a third place finish in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $5,000 Six-mas tournament which netted him $46,560. He followed that result up with a fourth place finish in the $25,000 High Roller event for a cool $295,960. A week later he jetted off to the 2011 Aussie Millions where he failed to cash in the Main Event but he did come third in the A$100,000 High Roller event for a bankroll boosting A$625,000 then he beat Sam Trickett in the A$250,000 Super High Roller for a A$2,500,000 score.

Many people would just take the rest of the year off after winning more than $3,000,000 in a month but not Seidel as he flew back home to his Las Vegas home before jetting off to the West Coast for the 2011 L.A. Poker Classic in Los Angeles, California. Here he came fifth in the $5,100 Heads-Up Championship for a $14,500 score before winning the $25,100 High Roller event for $144,750, a result that propelled him above Phil Ivey in the all-time money listings.

Less than a week after that result Seidel was busy adding another victory to his already impressive list of results by winning the $25,000 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship just a few hours ago at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada. After beating Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Vanessa Selbst and Andrew Robl, Seidel then defeated 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, Chris Moneymaker two-nil in a best of three final to get his hands on another $750,000.

This latest result means Seidel has now won $14,697,297 from live tournaments, $581,105 more than the now second placed Daniel Negreanu and almost $1,000,000 more than the legendary Phil Ivey. Whilst the poker community continues to argue over the validity of the money listings with the recent trend of massive buy-in events with tiny, often restricted fields, you cannot argue with Seidel's results so far this year and of course over his long and illustrious career so far.

Although he is yet to confirm his plans, it is believed that Seidel will be taking place at the Bay 101 Shooting Star event in San Jose, the World Poker Tour stop taking place between March 14-18. I certainly would not bet against him becoming the first player to win $15,000,000 by the time the various events have been completed.