Why this Blog?

You may be asking - why a poker blog from a non poker professional...?

Well believe it or not my main motivation around this is to help me improve all round as a poker player. I hope that my writing and any feedback I receive from my friends and other players may help my overall game as well as possibly help anyone else just starting out in poker.

Although I am not a poker professional (i.e. I have a very demanding day job in IT) I have now competed at the last four World Series of Poker (WSOP) events with cash finishes and have played poker somewhat seriously for the last five years. To say that I enjoy playing poker is an understatement!

So what can we all expect? I hope to provide regular updates on my results, goals and challenges, study material I am reviewing, my opinions on the world poker scene and maybe even some non poker happenings in my general day to day life.

A little about me - I am a 37 year old IT professional living in Sydney, Australia. I have played a lot of sport from a young age up until my early 30s and I have also played some very serious tournament chess between from the age of 11 to 30 years old. I still have an interest in chess too however my serious playing days are more or less over in that endeavour. 

I currently play a majority of online poker but did start exclusively as a live player so I have experience and success in both of these poker disciplines. My main focus these days are no limit holdem multi table tournaments (MTTs) and multi-table sit and gos (MTTSnGs) however I also play cash games including no limit holdem, limit holdem and seven card stud hi-lo.

As I type - whilst in a coffee shop located in the Rio Casino in Las Vegas (thank you wireless technology!) - I am on the eve of playing in my second WSOP main event. I am quite excited but at the same time very nervous...could this year be the year?!

Things are made easier here in Vegas by spending time with my Irish Poker friends - most notably Feargal Nealon and Dara O'Kearney both of whom I have learnt a lot from over the past few years and have much respect for. In fact it was Dara who approved of and encouraged my idea to start a blog in order to help me improve my game.

Everyone is more than welcome to leave any comments or feedback to these blog posts whether positive, negative or indifferent - either way I am sure I will learn something new everyday.

So welcome to my blog! And with my first introduction post out of the way my next posts will surely be about my WSOP 2011 results so stay tuned...