A month in the online blinds (Jan 07)

As every avid poker player knows theres more poker on the Internet than you can shake a stick at these days so with this in mind I've decided to keep a close record of all my wins & losses, over the wire, for 2007 just to see if I'm as good as I think I am.

For January the answer is a resounding NO!!

I've played on 5 different sites over the course of the past 31 days of Jan with losses of between £37 (PaddyPower) and £295 (Pokerstars) for a total months loss of £851.

Compare that figure with my 'live play' win, for Jan, of £682 then I'm in an obvious 'loss' situation for my poker playing of Jan 2007!

Whats interesting to me though is the way I perceive both online & offline poker as two very different beasts.

The online stuff is 'for entertainment purposes only' and I suppose, as such, the £27.45 its costing me every day to satisfy my poker playing mentality is probably what most people would consider an ok amount to spend on ANY recreational activity.

Its a bit like the lottery in that you're always hoping for a nice win but the reality is that these are too few & far between to be worthwhile playing for?

I only play tournament poker online these days as the bad beats one has to live with in the cash games occur far too frequently for my liking. A bad beat at the end of the tournament is bad enough but a bad beat every 5 minutes in a cash game I've no interest in anymore!

So I've played in about 100 tournaments in Jan. Spread across the 5 sites I think my best effort was a 25th place in a $5 rebuy on Stars which from over 2500 starters wasn't too bad. The prize of $150 was pissy to say the least. Especially when the total prize pools tops $50k.

I've given the $100k guarantee event on Mansion a bash on 4 ocassions with my best finish being 142nd when my A-K got shafted by 8-8 for a 20k pot! Oh the joy!!

So there you are...one month in and 11 to go. It can only get better from here!!