Ok so here's the thing, if you can't spot the sucker at your first half hour at the table then you are the sucker.
We have heard this line millions of times the world over but how true is it when you actually think of it. I have been the sucker for the past few months....the guy that everyone at the table is waiting for to make the mistakes, the guy they are instacalling with top pair no kicker after a push AI on the river for that third final shell, the guy that people are probably talking about in forums of how i seem to donk off so much money so quickly at the limits that I play.
No longer ladies and G's.
Thanks for those that have given good advice, Spunky, Kris, Amatay yay yay, the murg et el. I am imo a decent reader of the game and pride myself in my ability to analyze hands and make ridik calls when i 'know' i am infront. For these reasons I cant tear myself away from the game, this has been a big part of my life for so long, gave me so many friends and allowed me to put a deposit down on my first house.
I have managed to get myself into a right state on the credit card through playing ego centric poker and thinking i am on this earth to take down every pot i play in. The cc now stands at £5.5k which i am hoping to pay £2k off this week with my wages from work to take it down to a more manageable £3.5k. I went on tilt big time before and after the last post and donked off yet more money, albeit mainly to bad decisions from others with some sickening beats right when I needed them least.
I have decided to put a 'final' £250 roll on Stars. The reason I have chosen Stars is mainly due to the decent run I had on there before and the fact that they run the best MTT action online end of. I wont be playing many tourns but the ones i do play will be decent ones with good prize structures or nice sats to bigger events.
I have decided to quit 6Max NLHE for the time being and take a leaf out of Amatay's book and multi table the 9/10 handed ringfeasts. I am playing 4 tarbs of 0.50/1NLHE and sometimes 1 tarb of 1/2NL, Yes a massive come down from the 5/10, 10/20 days and a far cry from the standard 2.5/5 game i was beating on Betfair. This is the only way i think i can teach myself the disapline needed to win at this game again, less action, less temptation to force the action and thus less nervousness around my game.
I have started tonight and playing about 500 hands over 4 tarbs and won $300 profit. So a decent nights work, nothing like the swings of before and the big juicy wins, but hopefully on the other hand no juicy losses. I aim to have a stop loss of 3 full buy ins and will buy on to each table always for the full amount (before i was always half stacking and have done this to good effect for many years). I will prolly be looking to invest in pokertracker very soon but dont know if i will go for cardrunners as i think i know alot of the more technical positional moves and the higher level plays that are ++EV.
I am also finally making a big point to invest time in poker literature and am reading John Vorhaus' Killer poker online2 and another book about the mind of a poker player.....the title escapes me atm but will check to see what it is because its a great read for those that struggle with tilt and the psyhocological aspects of the game.
The hag is down soon from the Czech and will be looking to get involved in the decent live scene round the Thames Valley, will keep you posted on our road trips and maybe throw in some bad beat stories to boot.
The house is coming along fine atm with the kitchen almost done now and finally got some internal doors hung and also a nice one for the living room with glass windows in it through to the porch. Plans are afoot for tiling in the bathroom and in the porch, would be nice and definitely add some value to the place imo.
Your thoughts on any of the above will be much appreciated, would be nice to know what peeps think to the new strategy.
10/23/2007
10/15/2007
All Over
So as you can see from the title of this blog I have had another disasterous weekend at the online tables. Both bad play and bad beats have been right in my way and I managed to donk off £1.5k on Party poker at 2-4 through to 5-10NLHU. I really do not have any roll anymore and the credit card now has over £3k on it. I am still up for the year but all that money has been withdrawn from sites and put into my house....Am I bluescouse in disguise I ask myself?? No Roll, playing too high, playing shit, playing hyper aggro, playing shit again and getting the beats along the way as well. I literally couldn't sleep last night due to the fact i was worrying about the money that i have been blowing on the tables....sick
I am not going to bore you with hands but one I called an AI bet on a flop of 227 with A2 to be faced with the prospect of AK sooted and then to be hit with running sparklers from the backdoor flush and another $600 swing. In my final hand of the weekend, and one that sticks clearly in my mind I move $500 into $132 on a flop of 3 low hearts with KhQs to be called by Ah6s for the whole lot....sick move but I think a terrible call as well.
I am thinking about giving up the game because work is going well and I should hit my OTE this year which would be a nice chunk so perhaps no need for poker anymore, but then I cant forget how many good friends and great times I have had from poker and the fact that it is one of the reasons why I can own my house now....Please guys give me some advice....I am at an all time low atm.
Didn't even play the bloggerment because I was that pissed off with my game, well done to the rest of you that seem to be running well, especially BM and Amatay (who has built a very substantial roll playing nothing more really than 1-2NL.
A very depressed binner signs out....potentially for the last time.
I am not going to bore you with hands but one I called an AI bet on a flop of 227 with A2 to be faced with the prospect of AK sooted and then to be hit with running sparklers from the backdoor flush and another $600 swing. In my final hand of the weekend, and one that sticks clearly in my mind I move $500 into $132 on a flop of 3 low hearts with KhQs to be called by Ah6s for the whole lot....sick move but I think a terrible call as well.
I am thinking about giving up the game because work is going well and I should hit my OTE this year which would be a nice chunk so perhaps no need for poker anymore, but then I cant forget how many good friends and great times I have had from poker and the fact that it is one of the reasons why I can own my house now....Please guys give me some advice....I am at an all time low atm.
Didn't even play the bloggerment because I was that pissed off with my game, well done to the rest of you that seem to be running well, especially BM and Amatay (who has built a very substantial roll playing nothing more really than 1-2NL.
A very depressed binner signs out....potentially for the last time.
10/10/2007
Standard big loss after a win
Well as per usual I have had a bad session after a very good one. A total loss of $1400 last night trying out the 2-4, 3-6 and 5-10 6max tables on Party. I am going to be trying different sites at different times of day to try to find out which ones have the easiest cash games to beat at these levels.
I have decided is is time to invest in some poker tracking software. Seems that everyone has this these days and I am the fool atm that is missing out on this vital information.
Things that I want to know when at the table are the following:
Player profit/loss for that particular session – from this I will be able to determine their mood and thus whether they are more or less likely to be calling more frequently or on tilt. From this I will be be able to adapt my game to suit the conditions of the table more easily.
I want all the information to be ‘Live’ and updated after every hand, I don’t want to wait for the end of a session to upload hand histories etc because I think this is a very reactive way of tracking info and not proactive….also I will not see the true results at the table at the time of playing so may miss vital info.
I want to know how the program views each player and what it classifies them as, ie loose aggro, tight passive etc.
Historical data of course is important, how much the guy won last time round where he raised from and how much etc. I think this is very important to building up a picture on each of your online foes. Mine would say Hyper aggressive lunatic!!!
Can any of you readers out there please suggest something that will help me out here, it would be much appreciated….
I think I have an old copy of Poker office so will try to load that up tonight and see what that actually does, had it years now though and never used so may be out of license or something.
I have decided is is time to invest in some poker tracking software. Seems that everyone has this these days and I am the fool atm that is missing out on this vital information.
Things that I want to know when at the table are the following:
Player profit/loss for that particular session – from this I will be able to determine their mood and thus whether they are more or less likely to be calling more frequently or on tilt. From this I will be be able to adapt my game to suit the conditions of the table more easily.
I want all the information to be ‘Live’ and updated after every hand, I don’t want to wait for the end of a session to upload hand histories etc because I think this is a very reactive way of tracking info and not proactive….also I will not see the true results at the table at the time of playing so may miss vital info.
I want to know how the program views each player and what it classifies them as, ie loose aggro, tight passive etc.
Historical data of course is important, how much the guy won last time round where he raised from and how much etc. I think this is very important to building up a picture on each of your online foes. Mine would say Hyper aggressive lunatic!!!
Can any of you readers out there please suggest something that will help me out here, it would be much appreciated….
I think I have an old copy of Poker office so will try to load that up tonight and see what that actually does, had it years now though and never used so may be out of license or something.
10/08/2007
Surely not a weekend win?
I can't remember how it felt to actually have a winning weekend on the tables until this weekend, sure I did it the hard way but it was worth it in the end.
Finished up just under $4k in the end after being down to my last $300 on stars and all in on a stone cold bluff. Had lots of the usual swings though on the way, high point was $4.9k total then it went down to $1.7k so it all went on 3 tables, 2 of 5-10 and 1 of 3-6NLHU. Took the $300 on the 3-6 game to just over $2k and the other 5-10 games to $1k on each so that was a decent result. It got to a point where i was absolutely giddy after having AA and QQ beaten AI pre by 77 and 66, one time a four flush was painted on the board for a 7 high flush to scoop and another time the 2 out 6 came to my opponents rescue. I had to say to myself I am going to continue playing no matter what and i am not, i repeat NOT going to go on tilt! I began to concentrate and just like Friday night I played almost perfect aggressive poker forcing my oponents into corners where they didnt want to be and having the major hands hold up as they should.
I havent got any hand history back yet from Stars but i will try to post some of the more interesting hands asap.
Been in the city today for a meeting with work which was well gash amd have got training all this week so wont be writing much or playing much this week cause i'll be fooked went i come from after listening to a pumped up American all day.
Good to see the Hag back running well, Amatay spreading his seed and Burnley Mik hitting some form on the MTTs, gg fellas. Have been reading Punterz blog (link on the right) great guy and good read....love his Vegas roulette story....sick! Check it out!
Finished up just under $4k in the end after being down to my last $300 on stars and all in on a stone cold bluff. Had lots of the usual swings though on the way, high point was $4.9k total then it went down to $1.7k so it all went on 3 tables, 2 of 5-10 and 1 of 3-6NLHU. Took the $300 on the 3-6 game to just over $2k and the other 5-10 games to $1k on each so that was a decent result. It got to a point where i was absolutely giddy after having AA and QQ beaten AI pre by 77 and 66, one time a four flush was painted on the board for a 7 high flush to scoop and another time the 2 out 6 came to my opponents rescue. I had to say to myself I am going to continue playing no matter what and i am not, i repeat NOT going to go on tilt! I began to concentrate and just like Friday night I played almost perfect aggressive poker forcing my oponents into corners where they didnt want to be and having the major hands hold up as they should.
I havent got any hand history back yet from Stars but i will try to post some of the more interesting hands asap.
Been in the city today for a meeting with work which was well gash amd have got training all this week so wont be writing much or playing much this week cause i'll be fooked went i come from after listening to a pumped up American all day.
Good to see the Hag back running well, Amatay spreading his seed and Burnley Mik hitting some form on the MTTs, gg fellas. Have been reading Punterz blog (link on the right) great guy and good read....love his Vegas roulette story....sick! Check it out!
10/05/2007
Flawed Genius
Ok so the weekend is upon me again and so my pulse races with anticipation and nervous energy like it does before any game of poker. This is not fear of opponents or of the cards falling in configurations that I cant get away from, it it the fear of me, me and my right hand and that little deviant the clicking finger spoken about in many blogs worldwide. It seems sometimes to have it's own brain (maybe a little one below the nail) that does things that you all powerful human brain wouldn't even contemplate. Like moving in over a re raised pot with Q3 pre flop, or trying to bluff a missed flush draw on the river where a man with no arms, legs or head?!? could smell a rat and call the bluff with top pair shit kicker. This is what scares me....**thinking now of severing off the offending finger and playing left handed or even doing any betting with my thumb** Maybe my human brain still controls the thumb....only time will tell.
I will be playing tonight as Michelle is out on the town so I can have peace until yes rings me mid morning for the standard taxi service that I provide to her and some chosen friends. Some of them aren't 'good' enough to grace the green submarine and their names receive a snarl from me when mentioned as requiring said lift in the early hours.
I plan to roll the hag aswell until he gets here in a few weeks, hopefully he will have good fortune on the tarbs and turn the small amount into the cake by not missing a flush draw for a week (this has been done before in our circle of poker friends) The Flawed Genius has infact taken Player Points up to £100k+ on 6 separate occasions including getting put in to last years WSOP and being lent $100 for online activities. He came back 3 months later and when we asked how much we had won the Genius just muttered quietly "Quarter of a mill...." Nothing else...simple but show stopping. Typical of the man he didn't get over excited and also didn't plan to invest the money in any other way than climbing the online limits and playing nose bleed stakes against the best in the world, this is all he craves for after all. 30 days later he was skint again and trying to borrow £40 to enter a Luton rebuy tournament. Just another month in the life of the flawed genius.
I plan to play mainly 2.5/5 on Betfair tonight but will also finally load up DTD as I had a good conversation with Simon Nowab there who runs the high roller section online. Sounds absolutely brilliant if you can rake enough for them each month. He thinks you need to rake about £800 per month to qualify and then you can claim up to 50% NET Rake back, also the main thing is if you choose to leave some percentage of rb in a DTD bank you can save up to play in a main event anywhere in the world. DTD pay 20% of the buy in for you and thus take 20% of your action so they have someone to cheer on. You where their t-shirt and if you make the final table they will pay for you to enter a tourney of the same buy in value anywhere in the world again....for gratis. Brilliant. But the best thing about this is they pay for your flights and hotel anywhere in the world which is really where the value is at. Simon tells me that most of his players are those that play at 1-2 level and multitable....finally that level of player is being recognised by a site and not just the high stakes players that sites love to have. If you are interested in this let me know and I will explain further, sounds good though.
As you can see from my right hand side I have registered for the PokerStars World Championship Bloggerment, looks like a great event and will probably be some great poker played there. Also some great prizes and it is free to enter! Ship! I don't usually play low limit tourneys or especially Freerolls, but this looks great value and it will be good for all us bloggers to compete against each other in a World Championship event. GL all that enter.
Anyway should get on with some work now...it is nearly 11.00am and I haven't even started for the day yet. GG
I will be playing tonight as Michelle is out on the town so I can have peace until yes rings me mid morning for the standard taxi service that I provide to her and some chosen friends. Some of them aren't 'good' enough to grace the green submarine and their names receive a snarl from me when mentioned as requiring said lift in the early hours.
I plan to roll the hag aswell until he gets here in a few weeks, hopefully he will have good fortune on the tarbs and turn the small amount into the cake by not missing a flush draw for a week (this has been done before in our circle of poker friends) The Flawed Genius has infact taken Player Points up to £100k+ on 6 separate occasions including getting put in to last years WSOP and being lent $100 for online activities. He came back 3 months later and when we asked how much we had won the Genius just muttered quietly "Quarter of a mill...." Nothing else...simple but show stopping. Typical of the man he didn't get over excited and also didn't plan to invest the money in any other way than climbing the online limits and playing nose bleed stakes against the best in the world, this is all he craves for after all. 30 days later he was skint again and trying to borrow £40 to enter a Luton rebuy tournament. Just another month in the life of the flawed genius.
I plan to play mainly 2.5/5 on Betfair tonight but will also finally load up DTD as I had a good conversation with Simon Nowab there who runs the high roller section online. Sounds absolutely brilliant if you can rake enough for them each month. He thinks you need to rake about £800 per month to qualify and then you can claim up to 50% NET Rake back, also the main thing is if you choose to leave some percentage of rb in a DTD bank you can save up to play in a main event anywhere in the world. DTD pay 20% of the buy in for you and thus take 20% of your action so they have someone to cheer on. You where their t-shirt and if you make the final table they will pay for you to enter a tourney of the same buy in value anywhere in the world again....for gratis. Brilliant. But the best thing about this is they pay for your flights and hotel anywhere in the world which is really where the value is at. Simon tells me that most of his players are those that play at 1-2 level and multitable....finally that level of player is being recognised by a site and not just the high stakes players that sites love to have. If you are interested in this let me know and I will explain further, sounds good though.
As you can see from my right hand side I have registered for the PokerStars World Championship Bloggerment, looks like a great event and will probably be some great poker played there. Also some great prizes and it is free to enter! Ship! I don't usually play low limit tourneys or especially Freerolls, but this looks great value and it will be good for all us bloggers to compete against each other in a World Championship event. GL all that enter.
Anyway should get on with some work now...it is nearly 11.00am and I haven't even started for the day yet. GG
10/03/2007
Self Harm
Couldn't bring myself to play last night, chose instead to cut my finger open trying to 'assemble' a nest of tables for the living room. I like the way that they use the word assemble in these crappy instructions that you get in flat-packed items...makes it all sound soooo simple. "Just assemble this" or "Instructions how to easily assemble" What a fucking joke that is! You end of busting your arse trying to put together your item of choice, it takes 4 times longer than you think, you end up regularly self harming and the end result never looks the same is the stuff in the catalogue. What do I expect though for the price of a re raise pre flop! I would prefer an option in the Argos catalogue where I could buy an 'already assembled' item and pay double for it....this would definitely be my option of choice, just have to nick a few more blinds!
I'm not looking forward to playing much at the moment, I really need to put some performances in and book some decent wins before the hag http://jacobhag.blogspot.com comes down at the end of October. Plans for the week so far include a home game at my place on the Tuesday, Stanley Casino on Wednesday for the £20 re buy Donk, Friday night will be Full House night for the massive £10 re buy feast http://www.thefullhouse.co.uk They usually get over 80 runners so the first prize is often £1300+ and the cash games are wild at say the least. Saturday night is drinking night in town with some of the old crew from school, should be a right crack with messers Telbut, Benjits Grey, Appiah, Higmanen, Perfect Page all hitting Wokingham Town for a night of festivities! Bring on the Beer, the curry and the laaadddiesss! Ship!
Work is good atm, thank God! Actually earning more at work than from the tarbs....sick I know! The house is coming on strong, kitchen is almost ready with tiles, paint, shelving etc all being finish this week. Will post some piccys soon as it's my fav room in the house! Michelle is still waiting to hear about her promotion at work, alot of shizzle going down there because her boss doesn't want to lose her from his team, maybe some blockage going on from him....hopefully will sort itself out soon.
Should hit the tables hard again tonight and try to book a win of some sorts, plan to do alot of reading this weekend as I need to rethink my game strategy imo. Good luck to all the other bloggers, see most of you guys are running good atm...keep it going.
I'm not looking forward to playing much at the moment, I really need to put some performances in and book some decent wins before the hag http://jacobhag.blogspot.com comes down at the end of October. Plans for the week so far include a home game at my place on the Tuesday, Stanley Casino on Wednesday for the £20 re buy Donk, Friday night will be Full House night for the massive £10 re buy feast http://www.thefullhouse.co.uk They usually get over 80 runners so the first prize is often £1300+ and the cash games are wild at say the least. Saturday night is drinking night in town with some of the old crew from school, should be a right crack with messers Telbut, Benjits Grey, Appiah, Higmanen, Perfect Page all hitting Wokingham Town for a night of festivities! Bring on the Beer, the curry and the laaadddiesss! Ship!
Work is good atm, thank God! Actually earning more at work than from the tarbs....sick I know! The house is coming on strong, kitchen is almost ready with tiles, paint, shelving etc all being finish this week. Will post some piccys soon as it's my fav room in the house! Michelle is still waiting to hear about her promotion at work, alot of shizzle going down there because her boss doesn't want to lose her from his team, maybe some blockage going on from him....hopefully will sort itself out soon.
Should hit the tables hard again tonight and try to book a win of some sorts, plan to do alot of reading this weekend as I need to rethink my game strategy imo. Good luck to all the other bloggers, see most of you guys are running good atm...keep it going.
10/01/2007
Very Low
Another weekend of pain for me. I am at one of my lowest points ever in the poker world, just cant seem to book a decent win!
Managed to win $400 over 2 2.5/5NL tables then decided against my plans to spin it up on 5/10NL against some of the regulars on Betfair, these guys are sitting down with no fear because there rolls are at least 50K, an assumption based on how often I see them on the bigger tables and how many tables they play at one time. I, on the other hand am sitting half stacked with about 20% of my BR on each table....this really is sick but all the blood goes to my right index clicking finger and I cant help myself opening up a game that is way to big for me.
I ended up $1600 down for the weekend and think I played terribly on 5-10 and ok on the 2.5/5 game. I really need to take stock at the moment and may even decide to fire up another site and start afresh, players know me all to well on Betfair now and know I am capable of some insane moves at any point in any hand so generally like to look me up, especially on the 5/10 and 10/20 games where I am half stacking and continuing my aggro style.
Last post I talked about holding a blogger live game somewhere for a chance to all meet up and have a fair few beers and have a great evening of cash/tourney poker. I really think we should pursue this and I would like you guys to drop some suggestions in the comments below. Maybe a twice a year get together in different parts of the country to really keep the 'bloggers union'....bit gay actually that! but to keep it all going. I would love to sit opposite Ed Hollis and check raise Burnley Mik with nothing....think this could be a real winner......appreciate you thoughts guys.
On another note I have joined Raise the River, looks like a great idea and has a great forum by first inspection, I hope to meet alot more bloggers there as this site was created and designed by bloggers....a great idea chaps.....happy to support.
Managed to win $400 over 2 2.5/5NL tables then decided against my plans to spin it up on 5/10NL against some of the regulars on Betfair, these guys are sitting down with no fear because there rolls are at least 50K, an assumption based on how often I see them on the bigger tables and how many tables they play at one time. I, on the other hand am sitting half stacked with about 20% of my BR on each table....this really is sick but all the blood goes to my right index clicking finger and I cant help myself opening up a game that is way to big for me.
I ended up $1600 down for the weekend and think I played terribly on 5-10 and ok on the 2.5/5 game. I really need to take stock at the moment and may even decide to fire up another site and start afresh, players know me all to well on Betfair now and know I am capable of some insane moves at any point in any hand so generally like to look me up, especially on the 5/10 and 10/20 games where I am half stacking and continuing my aggro style.
Last post I talked about holding a blogger live game somewhere for a chance to all meet up and have a fair few beers and have a great evening of cash/tourney poker. I really think we should pursue this and I would like you guys to drop some suggestions in the comments below. Maybe a twice a year get together in different parts of the country to really keep the 'bloggers union'....bit gay actually that! but to keep it all going. I would love to sit opposite Ed Hollis and check raise Burnley Mik with nothing....think this could be a real winner......appreciate you thoughts guys.
On another note I have joined Raise the River, looks like a great idea and has a great forum by first inspection, I hope to meet alot more bloggers there as this site was created and designed by bloggers....a great idea chaps.....happy to support.
9/28/2007
Finally a small win!
This will be just a quick post. Played Betfair last night and managed to win $440, 2 tabling 2.5/5NL. I was in for £500 at one point and managed to have a big hold up when I limped on the cutoff with KK to see a raise of the pot by the button and a call in early. This is why i like the move of limping in virtually all positions with KK and AA because it is so hard for your opponent to put you on the correct holding when you make this play, especially in the late positions like here. I re raised the pot to $120 pre, and the button raiser thought for 2 secs befoe pushing AI for $350 more. Now i have a decision. 4 hands. AK, KK, AA or QQ. Only one of these I am in bad shape against so I call. He tables QQ and I see a flop of JKA then the irrelevant Queen on the river doesnt help him. That would have been a sick one without the King on the flop and would have definitely sent me on monkey tilt!
I have some big leaks that i need to iron out of my game that i am really trying to do. One is the calling raises with cards that will get me into trouble if i hit part of any flop against a big pair or something. Like, for instance, JT. A powerhouse hand in terms of its straightening opportunities but an average hand to hit top pair, decent kicker with. This happened last night against QQ on a dry Ten high flop. I check raise the pot AI and get insta called by the over pair which holds up for $500. These hands really do get me into trouble as I am always going to make the powerplay moves when I hit a flop against a pre flop raiser. My aim is to lead into the raiser in furture and then they have to be good to re raise the pot and i find out where i am (most the time) when they re raise with the big hand. I had JT later on last night and did exactly this and ended up winning that pot uncontested after the pre flop raise.
I am playing tonight with the boys from work in the £20 buy in STT with half price rebuys, will probably get rinsed for a oner or something stupid in that kind of school.
I play to play alot at weekend as usual and want to have a decent weekend for the first time in about a month! We'll see I guess. I will play the bloggerment on Sun and will definitely improve on my last place finish of last week!
Only 4 weeks now until the big home game at mine. Table looks full at the moment with PC, Jules, Hag, Big Adam, Pook, Grant, Glen, and the set all confirmed and others pending. Should be a cracking game and there will definitely be a report on this blog after it in Early Nov.
I am thinking that maybe we as bloggers should all get together soon for a live tournament or home game somewhere and maybe do one very 6 months or something....if you guys could send me your thoughts on this that would be great.
Good to see that Amatay is doing well on his poker pilgrimage and that Burnley Mik has had a decent break and will be firing bullets again soon. I have read Yorkshire Pudding's blog as well and really like this one so I have added it to my favourites on the right hand side. Bluescouse is blogging again more regularly which is always a good read!
I have some big leaks that i need to iron out of my game that i am really trying to do. One is the calling raises with cards that will get me into trouble if i hit part of any flop against a big pair or something. Like, for instance, JT. A powerhouse hand in terms of its straightening opportunities but an average hand to hit top pair, decent kicker with. This happened last night against QQ on a dry Ten high flop. I check raise the pot AI and get insta called by the over pair which holds up for $500. These hands really do get me into trouble as I am always going to make the powerplay moves when I hit a flop against a pre flop raiser. My aim is to lead into the raiser in furture and then they have to be good to re raise the pot and i find out where i am (most the time) when they re raise with the big hand. I had JT later on last night and did exactly this and ended up winning that pot uncontested after the pre flop raise.
I am playing tonight with the boys from work in the £20 buy in STT with half price rebuys, will probably get rinsed for a oner or something stupid in that kind of school.
I play to play alot at weekend as usual and want to have a decent weekend for the first time in about a month! We'll see I guess. I will play the bloggerment on Sun and will definitely improve on my last place finish of last week!
Only 4 weeks now until the big home game at mine. Table looks full at the moment with PC, Jules, Hag, Big Adam, Pook, Grant, Glen, and the set all confirmed and others pending. Should be a cracking game and there will definitely be a report on this blog after it in Early Nov.
I am thinking that maybe we as bloggers should all get together soon for a live tournament or home game somewhere and maybe do one very 6 months or something....if you guys could send me your thoughts on this that would be great.
Good to see that Amatay is doing well on his poker pilgrimage and that Burnley Mik has had a decent break and will be firing bullets again soon. I have read Yorkshire Pudding's blog as well and really like this one so I have added it to my favourites on the right hand side. Bluescouse is blogging again more regularly which is always a good read!
9/27/2007
Jesus is dead!
So Jesus is officially dead. I really tried hard to do the Chris Ferguson bankroll 'challenge'. Indeed it was a challenge for me and it lasted the best part of 2 days grinding 0.25/0.50 on Stars before I took the $300 to 2 2-4 games and spun the lot up in anger. Winning pots of $2 are of no interest to me at all. I obvoiusly need some massive BRM advice but this really isnt the way to go for me. I dont have the time to devote to such low limits and am playing bad on them trying to create action for bigger pots and thus losing my money.
I ended up losing about £500 at the weekend. I lost prolly $4k in pots that were beats which would have taken me massively up if they had held up after the money went in.
I have decided to stick with Betfair for the 2.5/5NL games and Stars for the tourneys. My bankroll has been desimated so wont play any laddies cruise tourns as promised and you can forget the Jesus Challenge for now...maybe if i go to the edge of my credit card i might have to re think this strategy. I am still up about $15k for the year, which is nowhere near where I want to be but is still proof that I am a winning player.....I need proof sometimes after dry spells.
Will probably play some more over the weekend with whatever rakeback i get from Betfair, should be +£200 so that will be a start up roll on there. Will need all the luck in the world at this rate.
I ended up losing about £500 at the weekend. I lost prolly $4k in pots that were beats which would have taken me massively up if they had held up after the money went in.
I have decided to stick with Betfair for the 2.5/5NL games and Stars for the tourneys. My bankroll has been desimated so wont play any laddies cruise tourns as promised and you can forget the Jesus Challenge for now...maybe if i go to the edge of my credit card i might have to re think this strategy. I am still up about $15k for the year, which is nowhere near where I want to be but is still proof that I am a winning player.....I need proof sometimes after dry spells.
Will probably play some more over the weekend with whatever rakeback i get from Betfair, should be +£200 so that will be a start up roll on there. Will need all the luck in the world at this rate.
9/21/2007
Big Plans
Ok plans have been hatched and here is the unveiling.
Firstly some pointers that I have picked up over the past few weeks, but actually probably knew all along.
I obviously need to stay away from 5-10NL because the game is too high for me and I don't play at my best in it. I do not have the bankroll either for this kind of game and I only ever seem to play this and 10-20 when I am giddy and tilted. I think I have probably lost $20000 playing 5-10 this year and don't want to lose anymore.
I am playing far too loosely in the games, constantly calling raises with 58, 8T, J9 and JQ and often re raising with them pre flop (which is a better move I think than calling). I am also calling 3 barrels with mid pair a hell of a lot and becoming a pay off wizard to someone who has a bear top pair. I am always looking for the miracle or hero call rather than assessing the hand properly and finding a fold on the last bet.
I am playing well for only certain periods of play and trying to win too much too quickly. If I don't double my buy in after the first hour I am looking for ways to do so and going for pots that certainly aren't mine, thus losing stacks on many an occasion. I need to settle into longer games with no external pressures on me to hurry up.
So here is the plan:
I will deposit $1000 onto Betfair and play normally with that on the 2.5/5NL game and try to score a result there.
I will deposit $250 onto Ladbrokes - First deposit in years there! I will use this to try to qualify for the poker cruise in Jan - which according to friends that have been on it is brilliant fun, this is a prize that I have always fancied winning but have never actually set a plan around doing so. I will play mainly the Sats for the daily comp and then try to qualify for the weekly ticket comp on the Sunday.
I will deposit $500 onto Stars and adopt a very tight bankroll management strategy here a la Chris Jesus Ferguson. I will not buy in to a cash game for more than 5% of this roll and will not enter an MTT that costs more than 3% of that roll. So this means I will be playing probably at 0.25/0.50NL games buying in for $25 at a time and not buying in for more than $15 on an MTT. So the main tourneys of note on Stars will be the big ones with the big prize pools, ie the Sunday $150 Guaranteed etc. I will really try to grind the Stars account up and always use this guideline when playing and see where it gets me. I will need to double it to $1000 to be able to sit in the 0.50/1NL games with a $50 half stack. That will be my goal come the end of the year to be sitting in 0.50/1 and 1/2NL cash games using this BRM method. Just to prove to myself and the doubters out there that I can do it!
I have a lot of work to do this weekend because we are tiling the kitchen walls and still have to put the remaining spotlights in the spare room so that will keep us busy. I aim to make my debut in the bloggerment on Sunday night, congrats to Mik who won last weeks tourney :-)
Also have hired a personal trainer, a cage fighter from Basingstoke named Rocci....how qualify is that! Aim is to lose 10 kg before Christmas with sticking to a decent diet and training 3 times a week, one time will be flat out personal training and the others will be my own work concentrating on rowing, weights and uphill walking to start. Will keep the blog updated with details on the heath side as well as the poker from now on. Might even put a before and after piccy on if it goes well....then you'll all be in trouble....keep your girlfriends and daughters away....oh yeah and your mothers, anything goes at the moment :-)
I will update this on Sun night or Monday with weekend results, hope to see a lot of you on the bloggerment, Sun. Be lucky.
Firstly some pointers that I have picked up over the past few weeks, but actually probably knew all along.
I obviously need to stay away from 5-10NL because the game is too high for me and I don't play at my best in it. I do not have the bankroll either for this kind of game and I only ever seem to play this and 10-20 when I am giddy and tilted. I think I have probably lost $20000 playing 5-10 this year and don't want to lose anymore.
I am playing far too loosely in the games, constantly calling raises with 58, 8T, J9 and JQ and often re raising with them pre flop (which is a better move I think than calling). I am also calling 3 barrels with mid pair a hell of a lot and becoming a pay off wizard to someone who has a bear top pair. I am always looking for the miracle or hero call rather than assessing the hand properly and finding a fold on the last bet.
I am playing well for only certain periods of play and trying to win too much too quickly. If I don't double my buy in after the first hour I am looking for ways to do so and going for pots that certainly aren't mine, thus losing stacks on many an occasion. I need to settle into longer games with no external pressures on me to hurry up.
So here is the plan:
I will deposit $1000 onto Betfair and play normally with that on the 2.5/5NL game and try to score a result there.
I will deposit $250 onto Ladbrokes - First deposit in years there! I will use this to try to qualify for the poker cruise in Jan - which according to friends that have been on it is brilliant fun, this is a prize that I have always fancied winning but have never actually set a plan around doing so. I will play mainly the Sats for the daily comp and then try to qualify for the weekly ticket comp on the Sunday.
I will deposit $500 onto Stars and adopt a very tight bankroll management strategy here a la Chris Jesus Ferguson. I will not buy in to a cash game for more than 5% of this roll and will not enter an MTT that costs more than 3% of that roll. So this means I will be playing probably at 0.25/0.50NL games buying in for $25 at a time and not buying in for more than $15 on an MTT. So the main tourneys of note on Stars will be the big ones with the big prize pools, ie the Sunday $150 Guaranteed etc. I will really try to grind the Stars account up and always use this guideline when playing and see where it gets me. I will need to double it to $1000 to be able to sit in the 0.50/1NL games with a $50 half stack. That will be my goal come the end of the year to be sitting in 0.50/1 and 1/2NL cash games using this BRM method. Just to prove to myself and the doubters out there that I can do it!
I have a lot of work to do this weekend because we are tiling the kitchen walls and still have to put the remaining spotlights in the spare room so that will keep us busy. I aim to make my debut in the bloggerment on Sunday night, congrats to Mik who won last weeks tourney :-)
Also have hired a personal trainer, a cage fighter from Basingstoke named Rocci....how qualify is that! Aim is to lose 10 kg before Christmas with sticking to a decent diet and training 3 times a week, one time will be flat out personal training and the others will be my own work concentrating on rowing, weights and uphill walking to start. Will keep the blog updated with details on the heath side as well as the poker from now on. Might even put a before and after piccy on if it goes well....then you'll all be in trouble....keep your girlfriends and daughters away....oh yeah and your mothers, anything goes at the moment :-)
I will update this on Sun night or Monday with weekend results, hope to see a lot of you on the bloggerment, Sun. Be lucky.
9/19/2007
Another Bad Loss!
Another day another K done! Marvellous.
Busted £1.2K last night on 5-10NL on Betfair. I really need to re think my game and my life!
Plans will be up here soon but definitely gonna stop playing 5-10 for a while and start grinding 2.50/5NL on Betfair and pull up a stack on Stars for smaller games and MTT's.
Watch this space for the full plans moving forward.
Busted £1.2K last night on 5-10NL on Betfair. I really need to re think my game and my life!
Plans will be up here soon but definitely gonna stop playing 5-10 for a while and start grinding 2.50/5NL on Betfair and pull up a stack on Stars for smaller games and MTT's.
Watch this space for the full plans moving forward.
9/16/2007
In then out of trouble. Still down tho.
Since my last post i have had some massive swings...mainly this weekend. I would post the hands but the big loss of yesterday was at the Murg's, one of the first losses i have had on his aging Dell PC. I ended up doing $3k yesterday on firstly 2.50/5 then 5/10NLHU on Betfair. It seems that whenever I have a good run on Betfair i have set up situations where i cant help but get my money in and lose.
One of the many was QJ, call a riase flop j53 all hearts. I have no hearts and $300 left in a 5-10 game. He bets $100 and i move in for the rest, he calls and tables TT. Immediate Ten on the turn for one of his perfect two outs (as he hasnt even got the ten of hearts). I also make a $400 bluff when an ace hits the river of another pot after showing strength pre and on the flop and get called by 44 on a board that contains AJK!!! Sick. My ultimate tilt hand was a push for $500 after a guy had opened for $35 UTG. Getting calling round the back by no less than the bullets, which hold even though i hit a 4 on the flop giving me a shed of light.
Then today I start off with a £500 deposit rather than my usual £250/300. I go straight to 5/10 again. I am really determined to beat this game like i have been doing with the 2.50/5 game. I seem to have had no luck at this higher level over the past few years when trying to progress up to it. Consistantly picking the wrong spots to get my money in and not holding up in the big pots that matter.
I manage to lose another £1100 after several hours of play holding my own against some of the regulars on Betfair and had a very long HU game with NOLUBE which lasted several hours also and ended up with only really the rake as a winner after he had been +$1.5k at one point and I had been down to my last $400.
Then as NOLUBE's dinner breaks the game i decide to find another challenger at HU on 5/10NLHU. URSOBAD was itting with a full buy in on one so i decided to pull up just under half of my roll for the day of $500. I manage to then take this up to a $4.3k high point and end up quitting on about $3.5k after he takes me off a big pot that he been reraised pre and bet the pot on the flop for $180.
A couple of the bigger hands from the seesion with URSOBAD are below:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487725 Turn gives me lots of outs. I was actually winning!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487720 First big hand
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487713 Hated the turn here. Auto pay off on the river though.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487718 I wonder what he had here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487735 If he three barrels here he takes it
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487742 Cant see how he can call here. Perfect River
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487744 I know my player by now....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487747 The biggest hand. Bit of a sick call??
So i hope you all enjoy the hands. It was definitely a rollercoaster session. I may play the Brit Bloggerment later, I dont know yet though because England are playing in the Twenty-20 World Cup and we are doing out the kitchen this weekend which has cost me £500 ontop of my poker losses. WE are getting under cupboard lights put in and controlled by the main switch....Looks well neat! Tiling the kitchen walls, and putting those funky spotlights in bathroom, kitchen and spare room. I will hopefully be able to post some pictures of the house soon as we have done loads to it in the first three months of being here.
Wardrobe and Bed Sofa will be here soon aswell for when the Hag gets here from the Czech Rep. Plans are still do do a mini poker tour, ending with a game at mine and a big reunion on the Saturday with old school friends courtesy of Facebook. Gold Curry and drinks are on the cards for the sat so that should be a wicked laugh.
Rumours about a trip to Vegas with work are gaining momentum at present and the likely destaination is said to be the Venecian which will be lovely. Alsoa work poker game has been scheduled for 2 weeks rime on Fri 28th to celebrate a good quarter of business. I should hit target this week and will try to push to 150% for the nice pay Oct pay, which will be nice because the Hag will be here. Check out this guys blog under a new link, very well written low stakes adventure. http://jacobhag.blogspot.com I cant be bothered to change the link of the right hand side!
One of the many was QJ, call a riase flop j53 all hearts. I have no hearts and $300 left in a 5-10 game. He bets $100 and i move in for the rest, he calls and tables TT. Immediate Ten on the turn for one of his perfect two outs (as he hasnt even got the ten of hearts). I also make a $400 bluff when an ace hits the river of another pot after showing strength pre and on the flop and get called by 44 on a board that contains AJK!!! Sick. My ultimate tilt hand was a push for $500 after a guy had opened for $35 UTG. Getting calling round the back by no less than the bullets, which hold even though i hit a 4 on the flop giving me a shed of light.
Then today I start off with a £500 deposit rather than my usual £250/300. I go straight to 5/10 again. I am really determined to beat this game like i have been doing with the 2.50/5 game. I seem to have had no luck at this higher level over the past few years when trying to progress up to it. Consistantly picking the wrong spots to get my money in and not holding up in the big pots that matter.
I manage to lose another £1100 after several hours of play holding my own against some of the regulars on Betfair and had a very long HU game with NOLUBE which lasted several hours also and ended up with only really the rake as a winner after he had been +$1.5k at one point and I had been down to my last $400.
Then as NOLUBE's dinner breaks the game i decide to find another challenger at HU on 5/10NLHU. URSOBAD was itting with a full buy in on one so i decided to pull up just under half of my roll for the day of $500. I manage to then take this up to a $4.3k high point and end up quitting on about $3.5k after he takes me off a big pot that he been reraised pre and bet the pot on the flop for $180.
A couple of the bigger hands from the seesion with URSOBAD are below:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487725 Turn gives me lots of outs. I was actually winning!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487720 First big hand
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487713 Hated the turn here. Auto pay off on the river though.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487718 I wonder what he had here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487735 If he three barrels here he takes it
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487742 Cant see how he can call here. Perfect River
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487744 I know my player by now....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1487747 The biggest hand. Bit of a sick call??
So i hope you all enjoy the hands. It was definitely a rollercoaster session. I may play the Brit Bloggerment later, I dont know yet though because England are playing in the Twenty-20 World Cup and we are doing out the kitchen this weekend which has cost me £500 ontop of my poker losses. WE are getting under cupboard lights put in and controlled by the main switch....Looks well neat! Tiling the kitchen walls, and putting those funky spotlights in bathroom, kitchen and spare room. I will hopefully be able to post some pictures of the house soon as we have done loads to it in the first three months of being here.
Wardrobe and Bed Sofa will be here soon aswell for when the Hag gets here from the Czech Rep. Plans are still do do a mini poker tour, ending with a game at mine and a big reunion on the Saturday with old school friends courtesy of Facebook. Gold Curry and drinks are on the cards for the sat so that should be a wicked laugh.
Rumours about a trip to Vegas with work are gaining momentum at present and the likely destaination is said to be the Venecian which will be lovely. Alsoa work poker game has been scheduled for 2 weeks rime on Fri 28th to celebrate a good quarter of business. I should hit target this week and will try to push to 150% for the nice pay Oct pay, which will be nice because the Hag will be here. Check out this guys blog under a new link, very well written low stakes adventure. http://jacobhag.blogspot.com I cant be bothered to change the link of the right hand side!
9/10/2007
Weekend Woe
So as you can see by the title of today's blog that my proverbial conkers have been done this weekend. Just as I thought leading up to it. The weekend is always a make or break for me because this is where I play the most poker and the higher limit games.
So I did 250£ on betfair while watching the murg take down an Omaha MTT for just over a bag. Congrats btw to the murg who really has become a good tourney player in the last year or so with plenty of decent results live and online
Then we decided to go to the ever so average Pete's Palace in Camberley which resembles an old school canteen...but this canteen serves duck and sweet and sour and egg fried rice et al instead of the customary beans and chips of the afore mentioned eatery of yesteryear.
After Pete's palace we went to Pete's game in Bracknell which is a big juicy dealers choice game of mainly Irish and Omaha 4 card high. Before the cash was a little STT for £20 re buys. I get knocked out in great shape with AK all in vs. AJ. The murg promptly turned a jack first card out of the trap for my demise there. Shame because first prize was £260 and the game was weak. The only players were myself, Pete and Big Kev who made a televised final table several weeks before. Kev ended up carving the game in bits after my dismissal from the table.
So the cash started in earnest and the murg promptly got burned with AA53 in a 4 way pot for over £500. Flop 665 turn q and riv 5. Big Kev had called round the back for £65 pre with 5Q72 and then called Pete's £90 bet on the flop with that hand against Pete's rockets. So 2 players with the bullets and Arma with KK?? in the middle and Kev hits perfect perfect to take the full pot. A sick start.
I end up doing £500 in the game and leave at 3.30am. I have Q3c3Q and see a flop of 3cc. Big kev fold K5c?? and Gorby, a loose player, calls my AI with Ac7c9c? and manages to pull an unlikely club on the turn and it stays the nut hand on the river which duly brings a rag.
Saturday I don't play because my Nan come down to visit and we take her out to town then to bingo in the evening, some great prizes there. £1000 for some full houses and £100 per line etc. No joy for the binner crew though as we are also met by Michelle's brother and girlfriend and even they cant improve our fortunes.
Sun was a weird day. I start by winning £180 on BF in the cash games. I cash off and leave $11 for a 60 strong MTT that I end up winning for $200 which is always nice. Then I deposit onto Stars for the first time in 5 years and take $200 up to $550 start stacking a 2-4 and a 1-2 game then get bored and do the lot trying to bluff the bullets twice for my whole stack. I then move to betfair and pull up 3 times for £500 total and end with a £30 loss there after being £200 ahead at one point! :-(
I need to regain focus after a shocking weekend of action. I will redeposit onto Stars again and start playing the British Bloggerment on Sunday nights. I will use this account mainly for small sats and MTTs and aim to build slowly there. I will also be looking for a good sesh on BF, prolly on Tues night as I am busy for the rest of the week.
So I did 250£ on betfair while watching the murg take down an Omaha MTT for just over a bag. Congrats btw to the murg who really has become a good tourney player in the last year or so with plenty of decent results live and online
Then we decided to go to the ever so average Pete's Palace in Camberley which resembles an old school canteen...but this canteen serves duck and sweet and sour and egg fried rice et al instead of the customary beans and chips of the afore mentioned eatery of yesteryear.
After Pete's palace we went to Pete's game in Bracknell which is a big juicy dealers choice game of mainly Irish and Omaha 4 card high. Before the cash was a little STT for £20 re buys. I get knocked out in great shape with AK all in vs. AJ. The murg promptly turned a jack first card out of the trap for my demise there. Shame because first prize was £260 and the game was weak. The only players were myself, Pete and Big Kev who made a televised final table several weeks before. Kev ended up carving the game in bits after my dismissal from the table.
So the cash started in earnest and the murg promptly got burned with AA53 in a 4 way pot for over £500. Flop 665 turn q and riv 5. Big Kev had called round the back for £65 pre with 5Q72 and then called Pete's £90 bet on the flop with that hand against Pete's rockets. So 2 players with the bullets and Arma with KK?? in the middle and Kev hits perfect perfect to take the full pot. A sick start.
I end up doing £500 in the game and leave at 3.30am. I have Q3c3Q and see a flop of 3cc. Big kev fold K5c?? and Gorby, a loose player, calls my AI with Ac7c9c? and manages to pull an unlikely club on the turn and it stays the nut hand on the river which duly brings a rag.
Saturday I don't play because my Nan come down to visit and we take her out to town then to bingo in the evening, some great prizes there. £1000 for some full houses and £100 per line etc. No joy for the binner crew though as we are also met by Michelle's brother and girlfriend and even they cant improve our fortunes.
Sun was a weird day. I start by winning £180 on BF in the cash games. I cash off and leave $11 for a 60 strong MTT that I end up winning for $200 which is always nice. Then I deposit onto Stars for the first time in 5 years and take $200 up to $550 start stacking a 2-4 and a 1-2 game then get bored and do the lot trying to bluff the bullets twice for my whole stack. I then move to betfair and pull up 3 times for £500 total and end with a £30 loss there after being £200 ahead at one point! :-(
I need to regain focus after a shocking weekend of action. I will redeposit onto Stars again and start playing the British Bloggerment on Sunday nights. I will use this account mainly for small sats and MTTs and aim to build slowly there. I will also be looking for a good sesh on BF, prolly on Tues night as I am busy for the rest of the week.
9/07/2007
Weekend...
Thoughts for the weekend.
Have my mum and dad coming to visit the new house and they are bringing nan down so i think a good plan will be to hit the Gala Bingo on Saturday night (my gambling never seems to escape me!) They do some great prizes there and if you get lucky and manage to scoop one you are looking to the thick end of a bag. That will always come in handy.
Dont know whether i mentioned it before but we bought a wardrobe from the Harvey's sale at the start of the week, i then went and won the £500 that it cost online in the 2.5/5 game which was a nice feeling!
I might be tempted by the £10 super add on rebuy at Reigate tonight. http://thefullhouse.co.uk. They usually get 70/80 runners so the top prizes are usually in the region of £1500.
Will definitely have a go online again tonight after a few days off. Hopefully I will manage to continue on the winning path, im sure we will see when i update the blog at the start of next week.
Plans to do the living room floor, and the garden as well as putting a big 6 foot fence up in the place of the little wire thing we have at the moment. We are looking to do all this come End October when both myself and Michelle should get decent pay packets from work. Michelle looks set to cap on her monthly target and I am in line to hit my quarterly one in my first quarter in the job.
Have my mum and dad coming to visit the new house and they are bringing nan down so i think a good plan will be to hit the Gala Bingo on Saturday night (my gambling never seems to escape me!) They do some great prizes there and if you get lucky and manage to scoop one you are looking to the thick end of a bag. That will always come in handy.
Dont know whether i mentioned it before but we bought a wardrobe from the Harvey's sale at the start of the week, i then went and won the £500 that it cost online in the 2.5/5 game which was a nice feeling!
I might be tempted by the £10 super add on rebuy at Reigate tonight. http://thefullhouse.co.uk. They usually get 70/80 runners so the top prizes are usually in the region of £1500.
Will definitely have a go online again tonight after a few days off. Hopefully I will manage to continue on the winning path, im sure we will see when i update the blog at the start of next week.
Plans to do the living room floor, and the garden as well as putting a big 6 foot fence up in the place of the little wire thing we have at the moment. We are looking to do all this come End October when both myself and Michelle should get decent pay packets from work. Michelle looks set to cap on her monthly target and I am in line to hit my quarterly one in my first quarter in the job.
9/04/2007
Marching....
So finally i think i have got my poker game together. I have been mainly playing 2.50/5NL on Betfair and doing pretty well (apart from a short blaze at 5/10NL which was a complete rollercoaster!)
I am up to about $20k profit for the year which is ok considering i have probably tilted more than that away - without monkey tilt I would probably be around $30k profit. I will attach some interesting hands at the bottom of this post so you can enjoy the 30min rush i had last night and the coolers and big decisions i was faced with aswell.
Work is going well at present and i still look like hitting target for this quarter, so am working very hard to make sure that happens which will give me a nice pay cheque for end October.
Ah the end of October...newsflash just in that the Hag is coming to visit from the Czech. We will have the sofa bed in the spare room set up by then and it will be nice for the hag to sleep on a bed rather than his usual couch option....well not really an option unless you include the hard floor in his choices of evening retirement. We will be holding the first game at my place on the Friday (2nd Nov) 1-2 Holdem NL with £50min/£200 max pull ups. Likely line up so far is Binner, Murg, Hag, Jules, Big Adam, Rivers, Wendy should be a great night of many laughs and hopefully some good poker along the way.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444643 The start of the rush, bit of a sick call off here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444740 I got the rest several hand later...dead
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444748 Part of the rush, another sick call off
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444752 Think i played this cooler perfectly, saved me money due to good turn play and the obv check call on the river
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444760 Another tester, must have been on good form to fold!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444766 A cooler for Totto, dont know how he doesnt do more here!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444770 Its easy to play the nuts!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444773 The turn to get me involved.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444780 Should I call here against a well respected player?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444819 Drawing very thin sir....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444853 The power of the draw! :-)
Hope you have enjoyed the hands. Lots of ups and downs as usual but i feel that i am definitely more in control of game at the moment than ever before....it's probably trying to prove to the hag and the murg that I am a successful mid-limits player with a future in the game.....
We will see.....
I am up to about $20k profit for the year which is ok considering i have probably tilted more than that away - without monkey tilt I would probably be around $30k profit. I will attach some interesting hands at the bottom of this post so you can enjoy the 30min rush i had last night and the coolers and big decisions i was faced with aswell.
Work is going well at present and i still look like hitting target for this quarter, so am working very hard to make sure that happens which will give me a nice pay cheque for end October.
Ah the end of October...newsflash just in that the Hag is coming to visit from the Czech. We will have the sofa bed in the spare room set up by then and it will be nice for the hag to sleep on a bed rather than his usual couch option....well not really an option unless you include the hard floor in his choices of evening retirement. We will be holding the first game at my place on the Friday (2nd Nov) 1-2 Holdem NL with £50min/£200 max pull ups. Likely line up so far is Binner, Murg, Hag, Jules, Big Adam, Rivers, Wendy should be a great night of many laughs and hopefully some good poker along the way.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444643 The start of the rush, bit of a sick call off here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444740 I got the rest several hand later...dead
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444748 Part of the rush, another sick call off
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444752 Think i played this cooler perfectly, saved me money due to good turn play and the obv check call on the river
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444760 Another tester, must have been on good form to fold!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444766 A cooler for Totto, dont know how he doesnt do more here!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444770 Its easy to play the nuts!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444773 The turn to get me involved.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444780 Should I call here against a well respected player?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444819 Drawing very thin sir....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1444853 The power of the draw! :-)
Hope you have enjoyed the hands. Lots of ups and downs as usual but i feel that i am definitely more in control of game at the moment than ever before....it's probably trying to prove to the hag and the murg that I am a successful mid-limits player with a future in the game.....
We will see.....
8/28/2007
No Poker, House stuff
Just a quick update since my last post. No news on the poker front as I have been decorating my spare (poker) room. New paint and online poker setup, looking good now. The Bed Sofa will be here soon aswell so peeps will be welcome to stay over.
I intend to play some poker towards the back end of this week. I really haven't been putting in the hours recently. I am up just over $16k for the year so far and I think I have been playing on average 30 hours a month online. I really want to be playing treble that amount so will put in more on a concerted effort in the next few months before xmas. I am looking at a $30k profit year in terms of a target, but it can all go in one bad sesh for me so fingers will have to be crossed I guess.
The new job is going really well at the moment, hitting my target for the first quarter, which is nice and should mean decent money at the end of Sep/Oct. Might be off to Vegas in early 2008 with the company for a sales kick off but they are still deliberating where they will host the worldwide conference week. Fingers crossed again.
Having a quote done for my front garden to be block paved as a driveway, hoping for a figure less than £2k, other things in the pipeline for the house are:
New Lighting in bathroom and kitchen, including the lights under the cupboards.
Flooring for lounge
New fence for garden
Painting the kitchen and front room
Wardrobes
Heated towel rail
Turf and patio for garden
So there are plenty of things to keep me busy for the next year. Hoping to really improve the house then sell it on in 2 years time and move to a bigger 3 bedder.
I intend to play some poker towards the back end of this week. I really haven't been putting in the hours recently. I am up just over $16k for the year so far and I think I have been playing on average 30 hours a month online. I really want to be playing treble that amount so will put in more on a concerted effort in the next few months before xmas. I am looking at a $30k profit year in terms of a target, but it can all go in one bad sesh for me so fingers will have to be crossed I guess.
The new job is going really well at the moment, hitting my target for the first quarter, which is nice and should mean decent money at the end of Sep/Oct. Might be off to Vegas in early 2008 with the company for a sales kick off but they are still deliberating where they will host the worldwide conference week. Fingers crossed again.
Having a quote done for my front garden to be block paved as a driveway, hoping for a figure less than £2k, other things in the pipeline for the house are:
New Lighting in bathroom and kitchen, including the lights under the cupboards.
Flooring for lounge
New fence for garden
Painting the kitchen and front room
Wardrobes
Heated towel rail
Turf and patio for garden
So there are plenty of things to keep me busy for the next year. Hoping to really improve the house then sell it on in 2 years time and move to a bigger 3 bedder.
8/15/2007
Some hands....
Had another decent result last night to go with Sunday's win. Ended up £700 up for the session, which only lasted for an hour. As I havent posted any hands for a while I thought id post some below from the past few sessions. Enjoy!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374440 AK wins small pots, J2 wins BIG ones! :-)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374446 Pot on turn and river were not good enough here....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374458 Think he had AK....any thoughts?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374472 Ah the check raise bluff, with the winning hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374484 Dont know what was going through his mind here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374491 Terrible call gift
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374501 Can he call a reraise pre with 2-5?
On a great training course at work this week. An intensive sales strategy course leade by Jeff Hoffman or 'The Hoff' as he is now known. His company is Basho strategies http:\\www.bashostrategies.com Brilliant guy and basically the best sales training I have ever witnessed.
How do I get involved in the Brit Bloggerment, Burnley Mik, if you are there and you let em know or is it invite only?
I spoke to the Umpire the other day after he came back from Ukraine, Brighton are running one of their numerous poker festivals very soon so I might make the pilgrimage down there for some action. Will have to assess the bankroll situation and thoughts nearer the time.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374440 AK wins small pots, J2 wins BIG ones! :-)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374446 Pot on turn and river were not good enough here....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374458 Think he had AK....any thoughts?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374472 Ah the check raise bluff, with the winning hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374484 Dont know what was going through his mind here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374491 Terrible call gift
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1374501 Can he call a reraise pre with 2-5?
On a great training course at work this week. An intensive sales strategy course leade by Jeff Hoffman or 'The Hoff' as he is now known. His company is Basho strategies http:\\www.bashostrategies.com Brilliant guy and basically the best sales training I have ever witnessed.
How do I get involved in the Brit Bloggerment, Burnley Mik, if you are there and you let em know or is it invite only?
I spoke to the Umpire the other day after he came back from Ukraine, Brighton are running one of their numerous poker festivals very soon so I might make the pilgrimage down there for some action. Will have to assess the bankroll situation and thoughts nearer the time.
8/12/2007
Czech, Czech, All In
So, Ive been a touch slack at updating this blog since my last post. I really had had enough of poker and was feeling really depressed about the game.
Things have got a little better since my last post with me winning £1500 online whilst in the Czech Republic, but then giving away £1k of it over this weekend before winning another £1.1K tonight before I posted this. Basically I went on full tilt over the past few days after being beaten by AA twice in short succession after flopping a top pair and on the other occasion a decent over pair to a low flop.
During my stay with the Hag in Czech I won 2 multi tourneys, only with limited runners tho, like sub 50 J and I won decent on the 2.5/5NL game on Betfair before spinning up $600 like you do on 5/10 trying to either get lucky or have a best hand hold up….neither of which happened….
We even managed to play a live tourney and cash game in the Czech in a rather dingy venue not unlike pulling up a table in the Oxford Circus Underground. The Hag finished second in the tourney after his A9 was beaten AI pre against A5 in the decided hand of the evening. I managed to win like 3 buy ins in the cash game after busting the tourney all in blind against AQ. I was low stacked before my blinds and had seen 5 hands in a row that didn’t even add up to ten….so I felt the poker gods might gift me some decent cards if I promised not to look. The only good thing about the cards that the almighty one dealt were that they were live against their opponent, the mighty looking Ace Queen. The flop was obviously high and my 6 high couldn’t even improve the board.
In the cash game, which was a very loose affair, I rivered quads as an all in opponent improved his top pair into a house, but the main pot was with 99 I made a small riase to be mini raised from the UTG opponent. An obvious call turned into poker heaven on a flop of 9K4. I played it as perfectly as one can play the second nuts against top pair top kicker and with all the money in on a non scary turn the opponent thought he had won with a third king on the river, even with the 99 tabled before the final street was dealt…..poker has a long way to come in Czech…..
So I end up spending £10 for the few days I was out there, which included eating and drinking out each day and some general present expenditure amongst other things. 5 bottles of aftershave were bought in duty free and I was off back to sunny (yes you heard right) England.
I hear that the Murg is on a cooler at the moment with second best hands all along, hopefully he will get back on the road to recovery soon. I didn’t manage to play the 100,000 MTT on Stars tonight but did have a crack at a 1.5K MTT earlier on BF, I had my A3h AI pre bet called (yes you heard right again) my KTo for my tourney life (if the opponent had lost he would have had a meagre 20 chips left……marvellous. The Hag is building his roll nicely, making sure he will never go bust again by playing micro limit cash thus funding his MTT shots on Stars.
Work has been good, ordered another 35 DVDs today as well and bought a Sofa bed which has to be made up and will take several months before delivery. We managed to get a great price on this at £499 reduced from £1k in a crazy Harveys furniture sale.
Time to go an catch a much needed early night.
Things have got a little better since my last post with me winning £1500 online whilst in the Czech Republic, but then giving away £1k of it over this weekend before winning another £1.1K tonight before I posted this. Basically I went on full tilt over the past few days after being beaten by AA twice in short succession after flopping a top pair and on the other occasion a decent over pair to a low flop.
During my stay with the Hag in Czech I won 2 multi tourneys, only with limited runners tho, like sub 50 J and I won decent on the 2.5/5NL game on Betfair before spinning up $600 like you do on 5/10 trying to either get lucky or have a best hand hold up….neither of which happened….
We even managed to play a live tourney and cash game in the Czech in a rather dingy venue not unlike pulling up a table in the Oxford Circus Underground. The Hag finished second in the tourney after his A9 was beaten AI pre against A5 in the decided hand of the evening. I managed to win like 3 buy ins in the cash game after busting the tourney all in blind against AQ. I was low stacked before my blinds and had seen 5 hands in a row that didn’t even add up to ten….so I felt the poker gods might gift me some decent cards if I promised not to look. The only good thing about the cards that the almighty one dealt were that they were live against their opponent, the mighty looking Ace Queen. The flop was obviously high and my 6 high couldn’t even improve the board.
In the cash game, which was a very loose affair, I rivered quads as an all in opponent improved his top pair into a house, but the main pot was with 99 I made a small riase to be mini raised from the UTG opponent. An obvious call turned into poker heaven on a flop of 9K4. I played it as perfectly as one can play the second nuts against top pair top kicker and with all the money in on a non scary turn the opponent thought he had won with a third king on the river, even with the 99 tabled before the final street was dealt…..poker has a long way to come in Czech…..
So I end up spending £10 for the few days I was out there, which included eating and drinking out each day and some general present expenditure amongst other things. 5 bottles of aftershave were bought in duty free and I was off back to sunny (yes you heard right) England.
I hear that the Murg is on a cooler at the moment with second best hands all along, hopefully he will get back on the road to recovery soon. I didn’t manage to play the 100,000 MTT on Stars tonight but did have a crack at a 1.5K MTT earlier on BF, I had my A3h AI pre bet called (yes you heard right again) my KTo for my tourney life (if the opponent had lost he would have had a meagre 20 chips left……marvellous. The Hag is building his roll nicely, making sure he will never go bust again by playing micro limit cash thus funding his MTT shots on Stars.
Work has been good, ordered another 35 DVDs today as well and bought a Sofa bed which has to be made up and will take several months before delivery. We managed to get a great price on this at £499 reduced from £1k in a crazy Harveys furniture sale.
Time to go an catch a much needed early night.
7/25/2007
Sick
Right then as you can guess from the title of this post I have had another bad run. This time for £1100. Marvellous, another dent on the road to recovery, Probably not going to play now until the weekend or maybe until I am in the Czech Rep next week visiting the hag.
Hands have been sick:
JJ vs AK AI pre for $700, First card King.
Nut straight vs nut flush, most of money in on flop with the straight.
73 vs 93 in the blinds for a $1000 pot flop 739 obviously
and the one to cap it of T2, flop TTA, I bet $50 in a 2.5/5NL game, re raise AI for $250 more, I cover and call. He shows QJ! King on the river.
Bored and fed up of the game now. Time for a shower. Adios.
Hands have been sick:
JJ vs AK AI pre for $700, First card King.
Nut straight vs nut flush, most of money in on flop with the straight.
73 vs 93 in the blinds for a $1000 pot flop 739 obviously
and the one to cap it of T2, flop TTA, I bet $50 in a 2.5/5NL game, re raise AI for $250 more, I cover and call. He shows QJ! King on the river.
Bored and fed up of the game now. Time for a shower. Adios.
7/22/2007
Back on Track....Home game soon
Ok, Im back to where I was before I went completely giddy on the 10-20NL game about 2 weeks ago. Well actually slightly better off as I cashed 425£ off Sky Poker and 1400£ off Betfair after several decent sessions there. The last session was a killer tho as I bluffed off my first $250 on a re raise pre with A9 and a push on a 3 hearted flop and have my opponent call with AQh for the made nut flush. I then went onto the 5-10NL game on two tables and proceeded to take the roll down to $900 from $2000. I then went on a roll and nailed very decision correctly and take a big swing back up to $3500 total roll before missing a straight and flush draw in a $1000 pot and decided enough was enough and came off moments after.
Start my new job tomorrow morning, having to be in Reading for 8.00am isnt something that i am looking forward to after a month of gardening leave and of course poker. I also managed my first half decent live result on Thurs with a £200 profit obtained from the Stanley casino cash game which included both omaha and irish aswell as NL and PL Holdem.
I shall be hosting my first game in the new house very soon, be sure to listen out for news on that. Should be a good one and quite an occasion. Blinds will probably be 2-2 and we will play PL Holdem.
Start my new job tomorrow morning, having to be in Reading for 8.00am isnt something that i am looking forward to after a month of gardening leave and of course poker. I also managed my first half decent live result on Thurs with a £200 profit obtained from the Stanley casino cash game which included both omaha and irish aswell as NL and PL Holdem.
I shall be hosting my first game in the new house very soon, be sure to listen out for news on that. Should be a good one and quite an occasion. Blinds will probably be 2-2 and we will play PL Holdem.
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