2/29/2008

Up a bit


So I have played a bit since my last post and have implemented my plan to play 4-8 games of FR at NL100 and NL200.

I am up a megre 4 buy ins so far after about 4 hours work in total over 2 nights.

I have mixed up my games a little bit and have been playing a couple of 6MAX games as well so I can get a bit more fruity with my foes.

I am looking forward to the weekends action and am in high hopes of a decent result, really aiming to put in 1k hands this weekend to build my PT database and push that 30% FTP rakeback up along the way :-) This weekend is crucial imo for my bankroll, if i can book a decent win then I will press up to NL200 for 6-8 tables rather than the majority being NL100 tables.

I look forward to an Amatay challenge when the fish is back from his hols, will be good to put in some HU action to mix things up a bit.

I bought a new watch the other day, UBOAT, Italian design, will be the next big thing in big faced watchs imo. Got it at a decent price £700 from a mate who is the watch manager for a big jewellers, gg sir.

Will post some hands tonight from the last few nights sessions.

2/27/2008

Weekend update and new approach

So the weekend came and went and so did another $600.

I basically had some unfortunate situations for full stacks on 1-2NL on Party. my K9 vs T9 on a Kt29 board, AI on turn with a miracle T hitting the river.
Then T8 vs KT on a 9J4 flop with a queen on the turn, Villian has bet pre and on the flop so it is hard to put him on KT here, all the money goes in and a $500 pot ships to him.
AJ vs AQ AI pre on a 5-10 6max game me obv with the AJ, not a good call here but the villian was loose aggro and i'd made the 3 bet with it then got shoved on for the last $250 so had to make the call just incase he had a small pait or a worse starting hand.

I was $1200 in at this point when I put on another $371 into a 5-10NL game and got dealt KT first up. Villian makes it $40 pre, i insta/tilt call see a flop on 9J5 he bets $60 i call. turn the golden Queen and proceed to mini bet into it and get raised all in for the rest, i duely call with the nuts and he is drawing dead with the boots. Took that $371 up to $900+ for a small loss for the weekend.

Anyway. I have been reading other grinders blogs, Amatay, Smart money et al and have seen them put in some great profitable performances playing like 6+ tables. I aim to do the same this weekend. I have got my PC set up with 2 LCD's so I will be ready to 6/8 table 50NL or 100NL. Might deposit on $1k and sit on 6 NL100 tarbs tbh. Will aim to get my VPIP down to around 30/35 from the 50 it is over the past 5k hands. I need to play alot more selectively and will play full ring rather than 6MAX, just to trial the system, I am a more skilled 6MAX player imo but want to improve my game and control my aggression on full ring, I think this will help.

Found a few tourns that I will play whilst in Vegas. Will prolly play the $125 freeze at the Mirage on Sun 17.00 and the $125 re buy at the Venetian at 20.00 in the week. Want to hit the Bellagio cardroom and Binions as well and also heard that the new Ceasers Palace CR is world class so will take a look in there aswell.

Amatay hasn't come back to me on the Heads Up challenge I set him, hopefully he will comment here and we can arrange something, would be interesting to see how good he is HU rather than waiting for the the Aces at FR :-)

On a bit of a fitness drive at the moment, been to the gym Mon and Tues this week and planning to go tonight, doing loads of boxing atm which should help the fitness greatly. Work is good, just closed a 50K deal which is my biggest of the year, looking forward to a decent chunk come the end of April.

GL all

2/21/2008

Vegas...Majorca....Basingstoke

So am just trying to finalise my flights and hotels for the trip to Vegas in April.

At the moment we are flying in at 9pm on Thurs 17th via Denver and leaving on 25th via San Fran. So i am obv looking for the best poker tourneys and cash games to play in, gonna need some help here....can anyone recommend a decent tourney with a decent amount of runners for the week?? All thoughts and recommendations would be much appreciated as this is my first time in Vegas.

Havent played any poker since my last post, I am still aiming to play just on Friday's and the weekends but I did stir things up on Amatays blog alittle with challenges going out to the pro himself and some of the the good folk I have had banter with before, stateofmind comes to mind! Come on guys.....The challenge is here in black and white. 21 games of HU NL Holdem STTs whatever the buy in. $5, $10, $20 prolly up to $50 as I am not hugely experienced in any tourns let alone HU ones. Winner is the first to 11 and we can even have a sidebet if you fancy on the overall outcome. Any takers.....?

Congrats to the hag for spinning up his freebie on PP to a decent amount, Party seems to be the sofest site in terms of low-mid limit cash games....it is also the place I have done the most money! Guess this is saying something.

Also booked an all inclusive holiday to Sa Coma in Majorca for the summer, a week away. Loads of sports and stuff going on in this resort so that should be cool.

Anyway just a quick update, will be a better post with HH's etc after this weekends action.

GL all

2/17/2008

Back...

Ok so I am back after a blogging sabatical. Happy belated new year to all and apologies for my lack of bloggage maintenance over the past few months. I really needed the break and was doing money left right and centre on the tarbs of cyberfelt. As all us aspiring world champions know though when that clock hits midnight on 31st December everything that has gone before, all the bad beats and poor bluffs, all those coin flips that have gone against you during the year justgoneth are forgotten and expelled to the very back of the memory banks. The new year brings a new slate, new promises, new opportunity in life and across the minefield that is the green felt.

So as far as poker goes I have done my pieces playing in the biggest games possible for my roll, anywhere up to 25/50NL with just over 2k. Here i got into a slightly favourable situation with QQ vs AK after it had gone blind, blind, call, raise then me to act with the bitches. In went the 2.3k, i had good fold equity here vs any hand that wasn't KK or AA. The raiser obv snap calls with AK but the EV of my play is positive because I am a slight favourite in the race plus I have the fold equity as there is $300 or so in the pot when I decide to jam. Anyway the flop comes AKJ and i dont improve. GG

So know I have decided to go back to grass roots poker playing 3/4 tarbs of 1/2NL, the odd game of 2/4NL and some more MTT's when I have the time. I have purchased the gold package of Cardrunners - what a site!! the best $100 i have ever spent imo. CTS' videos are genuine World class, I have definitely paid for the subscription by putting some of the plays into practise. I have also forked out the 50 doll for pokertracker, mainly to keep an eye on my ststs and records rather than to 'spy' on my opponents. I will prolly use it to build a database of my regular opponents soon but I find it quite a hard tool to use, lots of features etc....what do you guys use it for most? Any neat features that you recommend on there? Would be pleased to pick up some PT advice from anyone that is running it.....

I havent been pulling up any trees at 1-2 recently but have prolly won just over $1000 in a month of play, bearing in mind i am prolly playing about 8 hours a week just at weekends....so not too bad but i reallyt want to ramp this up by playing at least one day in the week aswell as the weekends.

I went to the full house in Reigate last saturday night for my first live game in about 3 months. Played in their £40 semi freeze and managed a final table before running a massive pre flop bluff and being called behind with AQ.....my 62o failed to improve and off to the cash table i headed. The owner of the club has seen me before around the home counties cash poker scene and warned the table before I sat down, cheers for the free publicity imo. Very first hand I re raise pre flop with q9 suited, get 2 callers and 3/4 bet the pot on a flop of J47, get two folds and show the play for even more publicity. Anyway from then on I am chased in every pot im in by all and sundry with people justed dying to iron me out. The murg busts his stack with KK all in on the flop which contains 2 clubs and no ace to AcQs when i comes running clubs, the murg has infact got the King of clubs aswell which makes this hand more sickening. I leave half an hour later with about £130 profit from the table and we make a tired trip back to Basingstoke.

I'm off to Vegas in April for the Calzaghe fight, should be a crack and will be my first time out there....any recommendations fellas?? Staying at the Venitian but will hopefully check out most of the card rooms during the stay.

On a bloggage note, great to see Amatay doing so well as a live fish, knew a player of his concentration and ability would do well. Good to see a friend of a friend Jonny Rutherford enter the scene...who used to come to the game I held in Basingstoke (and infact won a £1000+ first prize there) Link me up Jono and will have to arrange a trip back to the fullhouse for some felt sparring! Congrats to Yorkie and Burnley for prooving that they are men......

Good to be back, will post some recent hands soon aswell btw.

Binner