John Eames poker diary - 2010 round up

John Eames is regarded as one of the UK's hottest young talents, and in March he kicked off the year by winning the Euro City Poker Tour in Barcelona for €50,000. A frustrating several months - and a lack-lustre Vegas - ensued until John finally hit a 'big score' with a win in an EPT Vienna side event for €123,500. He then finished the year off in style with second in another side event in Barcelona, and the High-Rollers event in the same location, for €78,300 and €75,000 respectively.

Up until the end of the year, I felt like I was underachieving live, but I was always pretty sure there was nothing I could do about it except keep playing. Fortunately, some big results have come in the last couple of months for me. It was slightly frustrating considering how good a year Brits were having and I wasn't enjoying the same success.

Obviously, everyone gains experience each time they play, so maybe my game had changed subtly. I think the first few months of the year I was definitely running horribly. As for Vegas, I just never gained any momentum, which is so easily done in a lot of the shallow stacked, smaller buy-in tournaments.

Despite struggling, I wasn't put off to come back for the whole Series next year. I played mostly No Limit Hold'em tournaments and a couple of the smaller Pot Limit Omaha events. My first thoughts upon coming home were that I'd play more Mixed Games next year. I really would love a bracelet and the smaller fields would make that more realistic. However, I haven't had time to sharpen up my Mixed Games yet, so I don't know about this plan. It's certainly something to think about for future years though and it'd be fantastic to have bracelets in a couple of Mixed Game events one day; more satisfying than No Limit Hold'em for sure.

I was fortunate that both during and after Vegas I was doing well online, which restored confidence in myself and maintained the bankroll. I basically play the highest stakes MTTs I can find, but my volume is quite low due to travelling for live tournaments. I never miss Sundays if possible. I certainly enjoy the places I get to play poker in, and it's rare I don't like somewhere I go. But I really love live poker so much more; it's a lot more fun than the online grind and there's a much greater sense of achievement and prestige.

My biggest win came in Vienna, but I've also done well in Spain. The Spanish are quite weak when it comes to poker to be honest, but I still think my results are remarkable there. I think it's mostly coincidence and you'll see my results balance out over time. With the EPT side events, it's just one of those weird things that I went deep in the same event twice. It could've easily been any two main events, and I did play a number of tournaments between those side events.

In the final month of the year, I managed to win the Full Tilt Poker Series High Roller event in Barcelona for €75K. It was originally going to be a €25K buy-in, and the names provisionally playing included some value. Then I think due to poor numbers it dropped to €10K with 11 strong players, so the event was a bit of a disappointment as it could've been so much more. I was fortunate to win though, the final six or seven players were very strong, and I certainly didn't have much of an edge, if any, to be honest.

I've played two big finals with Michael Tureniec (the EPT side event in Barcelona and the English Poker Open last year). Michael's obviously a proven strong player and we've got some interesting history. I can't really think of anyone that isn't already known that I've noticed over the last 12 months, but I honestly feel the current generation of Brits are some of the best in Europe. I don't know what's happened to develop this but it's a fantastic time to be British.

I'm friends with all of the other UK players that travel the circuit - Jake Cody, Toby Lewis, Stuart Rutter, etc - and it makes it so much easier. Quite often I travel alone and meet friends at tournaments, and that bit gets lonely enough, so doing all this travelling without the fun and support of being with friends would be impossible. A few of them call me 'Eddie Eames'. I don't know where it all comes from exactly; I guess the idea of Ronnie Rutter and Eddie Eames, etc just made us laugh, and it stuck. I'm sure everyone will be calling me Ed from now on.

Obviously, televised tournaments are usually the biggest and most prestigious, so I want to be there as often as possible. I don't know if fame is how I'd describe what I'd like, but certainly being a well respected professional in every capacity would be nice. As for sponsorship, of course, everybody would like that and it's something that I'd be keen on if the opportunity arises

It's hard to set goals with so much variance involved in live poker. I'm just going to play a lot of live tournaments again in 2011, and hopefully win a major with a bit of luck. A bracelet, EPT or WPT would be amazing. At the moment, I'm looking to do the same as last year: play every EPT, European WPT, WSOP for seven weeks, WSOPE, and every decent tournament I can find in between. Rankings are something I think I'd only truly focus on if I found myself in a good position towards the end of the year, which has happened the last two years. Unfortunately, I've just missed out on number one in the European rankings both times. It's mostly titles I'm after though, so hopefully there's one of those in the near future.

John Eames plays at Black Belt Poker, the leading online poker community with free player training.