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.

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

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

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

My Poker....

Decided to write an update about my poker plans for the next few months as per Amatay's comment on my last post.

Basically, as most of you know who have been regular readers of this blog I have basically done my pieces online over the past few months on anything from NL100 up to NL1000. There are several reasons for this as mentioned before, like monkey tilt (being the main one) Bad beats (which precedes said monkey tilt) Over playing, winning too much (wtf!!?!?!) etc I am imo I decent poker player and should be a consistent winner at whatever level or game that I sit in. Indeed my tight aggressive live game seems to do me well in most situations and any type of personal bankroll situation, I am not afraid to bluff with my last £ and never afraid to sit in ANY game. This reminds my of the Brighton Festival this year, in the side games to the £1000 Main event I sat in a £100PLHE game where the average stack was £2.5k :-) I sit in with £100 and end up even for the night after 4 tough hours in this massive game, most players would choose not to sit down here, so I feel I have all the attributes of a successful poker player. I need to start really proving this online and will run a bankroll section on the blog for the next few months, starting with something like $500 or so and seeing where I can get it to by the end of December. Then I will set some solid new years resolutions for my poker and march on from there. Vegas in April so I want to be suitably rolled for mid stakes action over there, $5-5NL -$5-10NL.

Work is going ok, struggling to hit target this quarter (ends at the end of Dec) have booked $22k for the company so far against a $145k target so things not looking that great for me here atm, although I have $30k ready to be placed in the next week which takes me above $50 and another $30k pending before the second week in December which takes me circa $80k.

I will inform you all in the next post where I will be playing in the next few months and exacts around bankroll and BRM moving forward and what limits you will find me at. I have really improved my PLO live game and may give that a shot online at low stakes and see how I get on, maybe even a roll for PLO and a roll for NLH. I could do with some advice from players/readers that have re built their poker careers before or had to drop down to the lower limits after playing a long time at the mid/higher stakes....

Good to see the Murg doing well on mansion and CD poker, taken $150 up to over $600 in a matter of days....hopefully we will see those rolls march on in the next few months. Also the Hag (http://jacobhag.blogspot.com) trying to get back to his optimum roll, I know he had a big hit last night of like 6 BI's or so....keep an eye on him though, very good read and definitely a player that has the ability to do very well in this game, wouldn't be surprised with a hag big tourney win in 2008 or qualifying for a main event somewhere for a small outlay.

Jamie Gold....what a d'ck.....end of

The Art of the Speech Play :-)

Firstly before I start I want to hear some comments on the linked hand below. You may have already seen it (if you have would still like your opinion on it) Sammy Farha vs Jamie Gold in High Stakes Poker Season 4. I really dont know whether Sammy was 'saving Jamie money' here or just thinking that he may be beat with either a house of trips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hULMh1dZks First part,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_3RgF5Op3w&feature=related Rest of the hand


I personally think that Farha thinks that there is enough in the pot already not to run the risk of falling into a Jamie Gold 'speech play' with a FH or trips. But then on the other hand i believe that Farha has read Gold for KK and KK only or maybe even AA....prolly not even QQ, just KK or AA. So why would you not bet 185K on the riv when you 'know' what your opponent has and the pot is already $400k, it's not even a 1/2 pot bet here and has to be made, especially when you look at the ridiculous pre flop action. I think Jamie litterally talked his way out of a $185k further loss like he virtually talked his way to the WSOP crown last year. I think he really confused Sammy by constantly jibbering and saying 'I know you have AA' etc that finally Sammy gave up on the final bet......what do you guys think......I think this is a hand that could cause much debate.


Well the house is coming along nicely atm, mum and dad have been down for the past couple of days doing the painting in our front room and out in the porchway, looks alot cleaner and better imo. We havent got alot to do now in the house, only the driveway, garden and tiling in the bathroom and porchway then we are finito!

Will probably grab a couple of hours on the tables this Sun after mum and dad have gone home, will play a little with the £17.50 i found on Sky Poker and might have a little flutter on Full tilt as well if im feeling up to that.

Anyway, Vindaloo tonight in the Hook Tandoori so fcuking ship that! Good to see Bluescouse back with a post - all the best to him on his recovery battle....personally think he should sell the house, pay back his debts (£12k) have about £60k+ left for a £20k deposit on a flat, £10k for stuff on the house and a £30k roll for 2.5/5NL and $5/10NL and move up from there.....we wait in anticipation :-)

Update

Havent really been playing much recently, hence the lack of bloggage updateio.

Did manage a couple of hours online on Saturday night tho at the Western Club in London, Arrived there at about 11.00pm to find only one cash game going at 2-4PL but with the average stack over £1k so decided that my £500 total stake for the night was best served keeping the wallet company and being used in a exchange deals with the bar for liquid refreshment. They had about 20 internet terminals at the club though so I decided to redeposit on tilt and fire up 4 tarbs of 1-2NL full ring. I played very steadily and made the odd move now and again but ended up $200 down after my KK got cracked ai on a 769 flop after a $40 re raise pre by none other than the imperious JT...what a call pre and on that flop when I shoved....cant see how he can make this call at either stage of betting....oh well never mind.

Me and the Murg decided about 1-2am to travel back to the Reading area in search of a new game that we could beat on our way home from the Western. We made a few phone calls and found that there was a game running in a house in Finchampstead, 3-3PL Dealers Choice so decided to pull up there and see how things went.

I sat in the game first with lonely looking £100 when the average stack was probably £300 and managed to find AhQhAs3 first hand UTG. I limp (looking obv for the re raise opportunity), no one obliges....as is often the way when you limp in early with monsters. We see a 6 way flop of Ac8h2h. Nice. I check again. Someone puts a £10 bet into the small pot, gets a caller, then I re raise to leave myself £40 left. 2 callers. Turn is a Queen. Loose player leads for £30, again a caller and im all in for my £40. River pairs the 8 and I announce, to a few surprised glances 'Aces Full' and take a nice treble up first hand in.

The next hand of note comes when I have KQ in holdem call a raise 4 way to see a flop of 8Q5. Guy bets £25, gets a caller and I call at the back. turn is a Ten. Guy leads for £55, other player folds. I think for a few moments and decide I have called on the flop thinking I am good so I MUST go with this hand now (I actually place him firmly on QJ) I re reaise another £90 on top and he wells up and calls, saying he thinks he is behind. I now know I am infact behind after this speech and he tables T8 for the mid 2 pair. River comes and duly pairs the 5 for my bigger hand and the villain leaves the game.

I end up not really seeing any other hands all night and manage to cash out a £260 winner. There were 2 big winners on the night, one chap won £700 and the other £500, so my £260 profit was prolly 3rd best overall, closely followed by the Murg who made a house on the river going in with top set in Omaha and being sucked out by the mini wrap on the turn for the river to again duly bring the paired board for the win.

Didn't play online after and wont really be playing much for the near future because I have my mum and dad down this week and have bought a tile cutter and some tiles for our porch which I am going to clean up and make it look decent ready for selling in a year and a half.

Disappointing to see the demise of Burnley Mik, was one of my daily reads. Glad to see Amatay back on the wagon and also good to hear about Yorkie pud's life coming together nicely. Overall the vibe is good in the blogging world and the fish are still out there keeping you guys in rent and mortgage.

NL100 and Sports betting

Yes as the title suggests I have played some NL100 on Party todayand ended up a $100 winner for the daY, I was $300 up but decided to take $200 and try to parlay it into a decent amount at NL400 level where i soon got stacked by QQ vs my 99 on a flop of 258. This 'management' of funds is much better than where i have been before, I actually cashed out the buy in figure and the 100 doll profit before I spun up the remainder at the higher level....a step in the right direction i think!

I have been ill as fcuk all weekend with the flu which i have had since Friday at work so I have been restricted to the sofa for most of the time, apart from watching my rugby team get slaughtered at home by a team we should have had the better of. I bought the Simpsons game for the PS3, seems quality....it is actually like watching the cartoon!

During this sofa time i decided to back my extensive footie knowledge and put my money where my mouth is...well for £5 anyway...actually 5.88 that was my Betfair rakeback from last month lolololol. I had a decent run yesterday and today betting on the english premiership and nailed the following bets:

Sunderland vs Newcastle - Draw
Liverpool vs Fulham - Home win
Aston Villa vs Birmingham - Draw (Last few minutes!!!)
Chelsea vs Everton - Draw
Chelsea vs Everton - Under 2.5 Goals
Bolton vs Middlesbrough - Draw
Man Utd vs Blackburn - Man Utd Clean Sheet
Man Utd vs Blackburn - Under 2.5 goals
Portsmouth vs Man City - 0-0 result coreect score
Portsmouth vs Man City - Draw
Portsmouth vs Man City - Away Win (this was the cover the other 2 bets)

So as you can see those were ALL of my bets for the weekend and from £5.88 I managed to cash off over £85.00 not bad for some knowledge of the game! I have left a small £4 on to try to build another mini betting roll and have it all on Real Madrid to win tonightfor a small £2.50 winner if it comes off. I will not take up sportsbetting in any way other than just to have a bit of fun on the footie and thats about it. I gave the hag another tip aswell on 3 games in an accumulator which would have come in at 4-1....might start posting some footie predictions and tips if i keep getting things right or thereabouts...watch this space. :-)

On the poker front I think i am going to continue playing NL100 or NL200 level full ring on Stars, PP and Full Tilt and spin up the winnings on the higher levels to satisfy my need for bigger action...only tho when i ahve cashed in some sort of profit from the lower tables and the starting roll.

Have bought Poker office which is a great software programme for tracking poker tables, your results, live stats on the table, types of opponents etc. http://www.pokeroffice.com Well worth the investment imo.

Monkeys playing for stacks

So had a decent week on the live felt last week when the hag was over from the Czech. Ended up £600 up including the game we ran and a £400 loss in the big Friday night game at Wong's.

The online experience has been shocking again. I am playing with more disapline and control atm but am coming up against some massive hands in setup situations that I am not good enough to get away from. 4 set over sets on the flop in an hour were good for - 4 stacks as was q8 on a A8xx8 board when up against the slow played bullets add a flush over flush to boot and I am a big loser for that session. I have busted my full tilt roll of $600 start and bust a $600 Stars roll on Monday night so still have a lot to think about in terms of how I play my online game. My pre flop calling percentage is up at around 50% atm which is way too high and I am running into situations were I am destined to do stacks.

I have downloaded pokeroffice (http://pokeroffice.com) This seems to be a great alternative to pokertracker and has some much better features imo. I have done the 300 eval hands and will now buy the license, I believe it is around $70 which is fine.

I am again looking at investing in cardrunners after hearing some decent feedback about it a few posts ago, I just don't know whether it will actually add any value to my game because my reading of situations and general game play is up there with the best at any table when I am on form.....I'm just let down by times of madness, tilt and when I am replaced by a monkey at the computer for certain sessions....Monkeys are not healthy for poker bankrolls imo.

Also I heard that my Credit Card has been cloned and the fraud detection peeps are sending out a new one soon....no pokes until this has come through I guess....cnuts.

Plans are developing for the April trip to Vegas, prolly gonna grab a couple of nights in San Fran before and drive there in one of those big mustangs from Vegas, should be a wicked week. I f any of you are over there during this time let me know and we can hook up for some bevs and some poker.

Glad to see that Amatay has made the decision to go pro, seems like a great level headed (on the tarbs) player and should do well in his new career, I genuinely expect him to make 6 figures prof per year and really enjoy what is probably the hardest decision he has had to make in life so far.

Back to the drawing boards for me then, I will update again when the credit card has come through and I am back playing.

Adios

TV Murg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Qb1IE9WNE

One of my poker crew was found on youtube a few days ago. The Murg won a tourney on Mansion for $0.01 about a year ago and was whisked off to Vegas to stay in the Caesers Palace and was entered into the 'PokerDome' tourney where the winner of each 6 handed shootout received $25k and the overall winner of the series a cool $1mill. Anyway the link is baove for the first segment of the programme. The most interesting hands that the Murg was involved in are below. 2 big hands where he makes 2 massive folds, one worldclass and one village class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCm75B6bx0U Crazy lay down??!! 'what is he thinking?'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-J4bNc3uGU Commentators loved this one!!


What a guy, the Murg is indeed a global force. Holla.


Well the Hag is here and things are going well on the poker scene. I will leave it to him to update his readers with results etc. Some great stories on and off the tarbs this week and plans to visit the fullhouse in Reigate tonight then the big Friday night game at Wong's late/early morning after the tourn in Reigate.

Anyway this was really just a post to lord the murg, the king of the ocean and now a global force. GG

Guess I'm back.....

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.