Whats worse: cash or tourneys?

Tourney poker: well I used to be the first to say; “it’s poker without the skill so than any fool has a chance”. However, lately I have discovered that there is an element of skill, and I’m guessing that the higher up the stakes you go the larger this element becomes.

But other than skill there’s another important factor: the buzz. I was speaking to a regular tourney player at the Western Club the other night and he explained to me that the only time you get a real sense of achievement from poker is through tourneys – and I sort of agree with him. Our poker soc messiah, Minty, was spot on when he told me, “poker can either make you feel quite good, or really bad.” And over the years I have learnt that this is completely true. When you have a brilliant run in the cash games, you feel pretty pleased with yourself, but when that 7 buy-ins in a night downswing comes along you feel really fukin’ low. But a tourney is different; anyone can sit down at $10/$20 and is guaranteed a bit of a rush, but the idea of playing for that sort of cash, but with only a $30 buy-in is almost magical.

However, after the bullshit, I have to say, I still don’t know how tourney pros avoid suicide. The problem for me is that skill rarely prevails in a tourney, and if it’s some idiots lucky night – they’re gonna sail to the final table as you dodge every bullet that flies your way and still fall way short. It’s killing me! I play the $25k gtds on Stars and FT every night and am not even breaking even. I keep running KK into AA or AK into AA or I get it in ahead and there’s a miracle for the moron who has never got his chips in ahead and probably never will but will make the final table no probs. Or you run pretty average and then get into a coin flip situation and it’s all over. A bad night at cash you sit there feeling that you’ve lost lots of money and that generally makes you feel sick, but getting deep in a tourney and going broke is like writing an essay and then having your hard drive crash. They both hurt, but in very different ways.

What I’m saying is, by deciding to focus on tourneys for a while, have I chosen the easy option? Or have I just chosen a few months of near misses? At the moment I’m not all that sure....

I have, however, learnt that I can beat the average home game now. Took a bit of a tour of SNG home games in Cheltenham (three to be exact) and managed two firsts and one second – and I came second after being 5 outered early on for a triple stack size pot and, 6 outered for a massive pot 3 handed and then 9 outered for almost the tourney win whilst heads-up. So can’t complain about the result really. lol

In other news: I crashed my car last night whilst driving into central London to pick up some friends. My insurance policy has a £650 excess. So what have I learnt? Nice guys finish last, and normally go broke on the way!!!

Anyways – hope you all have a good Christmas, and as always – gl at the tables

walking in a Hatton wonderland.... well not quite...

Not much poker recently. Played a few hands on sun (literally 50 or summin) managed to win a $60 pot with a house against what I’m assuming was a flush draw. Then I lost the following pot: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1794073 – my thoughts were; AQ and AK raise me pre (okies, no stats on the vil coz he’d only just sat down) but I thought that was standard of all players – lol. My thoughts were, he’s either flopped deuces full, got lucky with A-5 or I got him crushed and he has a smaller A. Basically, I thought this was a standard call, anyone think otherwise please comment.

Saturday night (for all those out in Vegas) or 5:15am Sunday morning was the Hatton Mayweather fight. I was at a party that night so I decided to make a book. I gave 1.5 on Mayweather and 2.8 on Hatton – I also gave 20:1 for a Hatton to Knock out Mayweather in any round. So yer – fairly simple book. As I expected I ended up sweating a Hatton defeat pretty hard: my book had £50 on Mayweather and about £150 on a Hatton win with a heap of KO bets as well – so you could say it wasn’t exactly balanced! However, as much as it would have cost I still wanted Hatton to take it down.

Never been much of a boxing fan but I couldn’t believe that the hosts choose the size of the ring, the officials and the ref! So as Mayweather was American, had a big reach and was quick on his feet they opted for the largest possible size of ring, three judges from Nevada and a ref that was not only from the US but had the stars and stripes on his arm! .......fair fight eh...

Anyway – all worked out for me in the end I suppose. Off to Cheltenham for the meet this weekend – hoping to enjoy a bit of success there. On the poker front I’m trying to play a lot of the 1am $25 tourneys across Stars, FT, Crypto and 888 and may try to get back into the cash games if I don’t managed to get a job in the card rooms.

Hope you’re all enjoying X-mas – gl at the tables, ty for reading

coolered, sucked out on - i hate cowoys and rathollers!

How to beat ssnl: raise from the button, steal the blinds, sit out and never play again. – lol
This blog is just turning into a continued moan, I get coolered, I get drawn out on, either way I loose. There’s no interesting hands – coz I’m play ssnl, there’s no out playing people – coz they can’t fold, all there is are hands where some guy donks off his stack with a clearly beat hand, or hands where they try to donk off their chips but the party dealer gives them their perfect card.
My last three days have just been amusing:

1) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1751130 – one time
2) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1753970 – two time
3) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1754011 – three time – this was great coz he timed down to 1 sec before making this “tough call”
4) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1751139 – four time
5) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1753983 – so then I start getting outdrawn, which was a breath of fresh air after the constant coolering
6) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1751136 – not sure what the odds are, he’s probably correct to get it in – against me he’s probably a 9:1 fav.
7) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1753989 – this was kinda a cooler – but tbh I knew he had that hand – I just felt: if he can three outer me, I’ll try a four outer. What I loved more was that he said “cold deck, but I had odds to call the flop bet” I explained that 5% made him a 19:1 dog to catch on the turn, he responded by leaving the table, which made him like the 1000th guy to ratholl me!

Basically – I think I’ve completely lost patience with poker. I remember a few others complaining about how bad they run for long stretches. But I think the problem is different for me, I think I’ve run good for like 2 short stretches this year, and run bad all the other time. I remember negreanu complaining how he ran bad for the whole of WSOP 2005 – all I’d say is 6 weeks of live poker on a downswing is like me running bad for two days online – lol.

What I can’t seem to get to grips with is why it pisses me off so much when I lose at poker. When I gamble on the races It doesn’t affect me even if I have £50-£100 on a race and lose – last year’s Grand National cost me way over £150 if I can remember correctly and I was pissed off for about five minutes and then went down to the pub and enjoyed the rest of the day. – but over the last two days I’ve lost about $400 on the tables ($200 of which was profit from Monday) and I feel really shit about it. I’m just not sure it’s worth it. When I look at my losses for the year they amount to like £400 – I’ve had nights in out when I’ve spent more than that (not that I can afford to) and it’s cost me a lot less heart ache.

So why does poker piss me off so much? – I think it’s coz I have to lose to someone (whose usually an idiot); I don’t mind losing to a bookie, in a casino I feel like a mug just being there, but I don’t want to rip the head of the croupier when they drop their 15th blackjack on my 20, and I don’t even want bad things to happen to the painful shooter on the craps table who can only shoot a seven, so it’s just poker that fuck’s me off.

The other reason is that I think I’m quite a good poker player, I can put players on a range well – and lots of the time on a specific hand, I play aggressively enough to stay even without any big pot wins, and then when I get into a big pot I normally have the better hand – so statistically, I should win.

Basically, I really want to take a break from this game. When I think about, it’s got no value for me– I’m never going to be able to sustain myself by playing poker, and to be honest, I couldn’t think of anything worse – when I lose I feel shit, but I don’t have to start trying to work out how to pay the bills. I think the only reason why I want to play is to prove to myself that I can beat the game, and as painful as it is to admit it – it seems I can’t. I would love to work out if over the last 10 months I’m up or down in sklansky $s – coz I think that I’m up big! – lol

Anyways – have been told not to make my blog too much of a depressing read – and I really hope it hasn’t been. I hope that over the months there’s been some decent stuff on here. Over Christmas I’m going to be getting a job, not playing poker. But I’ve got a few more contacts on the race scene so I will be blogging up on my pony backing. I’m hoping that I don’t choose to play any poker though – I want to enjoy Christmas – lol
Ty for reading, best of luck to you all

$1 profit for the week - $300+ swing

At my low point I was stuck another 6 buy-ins however, at this point I’m up $1 for the week. So a good turnaround me thinks. I had to do a fair bit of work to get even and had to really adjust my negative attitude towards the game. In the previous week I had been sucked out and coolered pretty badly, but I had also forgotten some significant points of the game. I’m pretty good at playing long sessions across 6-7 tables, but the mistake I kept making was trying to get into big pots too early – when I should sit at the table and build up a few notes on the players before risking too much money. Later in the week when I went back to doing this everything began working much more smoothly. Here’s a few hands for the week:

1) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1738326 – this vil is playing 85/14, has shown in previous hands that he is a real beginner, has no concept of position, bet amounts or the value of his hand in comparison to the board so I raised pre for value and was more than happy to get my money in on this board.
2) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1738344 – this vil was playing like an absolute maniac – he was playing 100/30 over 13 hands – but had doubled up once and since managed to lose two stacks – I should confess that this call did take some encouragement from Jack – I believed it to be a high variance call (and considering the hit my bankroll had taken I wasn’t sure if I was ready for more variance) – but Jack was certainly correct to dispute my point esp. when the vil showed his holdings.
3) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1738374 – this hand is open to discussion. My thoughts were, as this vil is playing 32/9 his UTG raising range must be small-ish (obv I was wrong) – I was hoping that I could induce a shove from his range which I was setting as TT-AA inc A-J and above. Obv. The check re-raise all-in on the river made me think I had let him walk into top set or a J-high str8 – but I had to make the call. Would like to have some feedback here tho.
4) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1738409 – not sure what to say about this hand. Whether I should bet flop and turn is certainly questionable – vil is playing 50/13 and I put him on the flush draw. Kinda feel I was priced into the river call tho...
5) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1738426 – this hand made me look like the table fish – the vil is playing 58/0 and was spewing everywhere – I assumed that he could be bluffing here I suppose – not sure what others would recommend...

So end of this week was much better than last – my black-jack high rolling friend gave my account a massive bashing on Friday and Saturday so will try to get some free $s off PTY – when I called on Saturday morning they’d only give me a $100 bonus which I have to play 4000 raked hands to clear – However, his average bet was higher on Sat so might be able to work on getting more off them – lol

Not too much work to do next week so will work on the $50 nl – gotta make $675 before I can move up – which is a bit of a pain coz I got very close at one point in the previous week.

Ty for reading – gl at the tables

Running bad or playing bad

Still can’t work it out – I’m lost nearly $1000 on PTY in less than a week playing no higher than $50nl. It’s rather sick.

Okies – so I felt a little owned after this hand. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1726009 – my thoughts were he’s got KJ when he calls or two pair – when he checks to me I’m thinking – he’s not gonna check the nuts to me, should I check behind – or is he planning to check call with something weak – when he shoves I’m not sure whether I should be folding.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1726042 - also feel i got pwned by another river check-raise.

Just not sure what the hell to think really. I played 2500 hands today and lost $155.
I’ve had AA cracked by AK, I’ve had set over set, I’ve flopped a set against a flopped flush – it’s been that sort of day again.

But the main thing I’m not sure about is my style – I keep trying to play a slightly looser form of TAG but it seems everyone has to see the flop – I’m not even sure that I like to 3-bet AK out of pos in a multi way pot anymore because they normally all come along and it seems I just don’t hit anymore.

Really not sure what the hell to think. Mainly coz I don’t know if I’m running bad have just developed a load of leaks since i started playing PTY

i have a dream!....that one day i'll connect with a flop again... i have a dream!

Just cannot believe how badly I’m running. It’s a joke – I’m surrounded by people making completely moronic decisions – but they’re beating me consistently now. I just think I’ve lost so many buy-ins that I have just stopped caring and that’s really not a profitable attitude.
Perhaps it’s time to concentrate on my degree – lol.
I think my problem is that I find it impossible to put people on hands when they play so weirdly:
1) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1718855 – wtf – how can you play top pair like this?
2) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1718858 – at higher stakes this is a pwning, I don’t think this is profitable at 50nl – first time I’ve ever had the move pulled on me and not be a bluff.
3) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1718863 – lol – when I flop good at least I can get the moneys in the pot
4) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1718882 – I assumed this vil was making the bet with a missed flush draw – what a suprise – I was wrong...
5) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1718883 – Perhaps should have folded – not sure – I give little resperct to those who cannot afford a full buy-in
6) Lol – also got in a big hand with KJo – I had raised pre from the CO and had a call from the small stacker in the SB and the big stack on the button – Flop j-high with two clubs – checked to me so I bet $6 into $7ish – both call – turn was a blank but this time I decide to check for pot control – the button bets $8 and we both call – river is Kc – short stack and I check and button insta-pushes for and effective $35 into $50 – SB insta mucks – I can’t work out what fooking hand he has and end up timing out trying to make the decision. Still not sure what I should have done here. If his bet was a bluff – why so big?

ps - please read the post below - it's much more interesting - and less of a moan...

Off to the races...

Cheltenham races...

After a week of running bad the Paddy Power Gold Cup was my chance to get even. It’s a great little festival; first handicap hurdles of the season so obv. the hardest for the bookies to totally bust you. Only problem was; I didn’t really know shit!

Had to get up at about 8:30 (after going to bed at 6am) to start driving to Cheltenham. Got there in good time, but spent a couple of hours drinking with some friends, one of which was to be my tipster for the day, John, – he came equipped with three form guides, two mobiles and a season pass to the course – obv. a pro... Whilst drinking we missed the first race – alarm bells should have rung when his ‘top-tip’ pulled up half way...

So second race of the day and my first punt. It was the Club 16-24 Novices Chase I just mirrored John’s action with two each way bets costing me a total of £40. We needed a place to break even, but a win would put us up £40-£50 – our ponies came in 5th and 6th. However, Ruby Walsh dislocated his shoulder in a heavy fall on favourite Willyanwoody, Walsh's injury meant he wouldn't be able to ride the heavily backed Granit Jack in the Paddy Power Gold Cup (4th race). So now off to the betting room to watch the odds which were racing around because nobody knew if the replacement jockey Liam Heard, who was racing at Uttoxeter race course, was going to make the 80 mile drive in time for weigh in. For those who don’t know, the betting room is like a trading floor for punters; there’s about 30 free-lanced bookmakers all offering slightly different odds, and most importantly, usually better odds than the more convenient major bookmakers who are all over the course. Due to the speculation caused by Ruby's fall I decided to get on my mobile to my Irish tipster from back in the day who confirmed my hunch – L’Antartique 7-1. Although the odds were bouncing around on all the runners I managed to get £20 each way on at 13-2. John had been doing his own research (he used his two phones, which did look quite professional) and told me that after speaking to a couple of stable boys to back an outsider, Copsale Lad, to win! I took his advice and got £30 down on the outsider at 9-1.

Alrighty – so after spending 40 mins in the betting room I had almost forgotten about the 3rd race when I got a call from my internet blackjack loving mate, Steve. He was up in the Champagne bar with the girls and asked if I wanted to back the 3rd race – I told him to just “get me the favourite, £20 on the nose.” I ended up watching the race course-side and was happy to see the favourite “Franchoek” sale in two lengths ahead – so £27 win! – however, when I got back to Steve I found that my money had actually gone on “Won in the Dark” a 25:1 donkey! – his excuse what that he thought “on the nose” has something to do with ‘whatever you think is best’.
So now slightly angry and down £60 I necked half his bottle of champagne and headed to the course to watch the ponies being led-up for the P-P Gold Cup. Just before the lead up the announcement came in that Liam Heard had weighed in and would be racing “Granite Jack” – fukin marvellous! I had a 13-2 and a 9-1 when there was a 3-1 favourite out there. I watched as the inevitable started to unfold – Granite Jack tore through the field and by the second lap was ahead by over a length – however, on the second to last fence my prayers were answered, Granite Jack spectacularly managed to land on his head, breaking his neck and dying instantly, thus allowing L’antartique to take the lead and win by a nose over the 33-1 outsider Il Duce. I collected £196 for that race, so misusing my £50 I had riding on it, and the £60 losses from the other races I was up around £90.
The next race I didn’t have any real views, and no one seemed to know who to back – so I had a £15 each way bet on an 18-1 in the 3:10. I thought the race was a hurdle, however, when I saw that that it was a chase I kissed goodbye to the £30 and watched the heavily backed favourite come home three lengths ahead of the field.
So my plan was to put the last £60 of profit on the final race. I got on the phone to my Irish tipster (as John hadn’t given me a single winner) and decided to put £30 each way on D’Argent. I had him at 13-2 so a win would give me a total pay and total profit of £150. When I got back the bar I discovered that half the people there had money in D’Argent, and then I discovered why: they were Irish and so was the horse. Luck wasn’t on my side and I watched as the 15:2 outsider came in first.
So, no profit on the day, and a few costs: £25 club pass entry to the ground, £40 on food and booze and that evening I lost two games of spoof for a bottle of champagne each and spent money on a meal and more booze meaning that the weekend was approaching £150 in costs. However, at 4:30am, Steve decided to Martingale deck cutting to the tune of £40 profit for me which softened the blow.
Anyways – hope this wasn’t too boring a read... gl at the tables.

lol - lol - lol

Okies – so after last nights 7-8 buy-in down swing I decided what was needed to rectify the bankroll crisis was a nice bit of Friday fishy action. And that was certainly what I got....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707276 – first few hands and I get it all in 80% to win – does it hold, does it fuck!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707292 – so that leads me to perhaps make an incorrect call here...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707296- that’s then followed up by the compulsory QQ vs KK and now I’m stuck two buy-ins.

Take a break, eat some curry, and get back to the game...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707304 – things start looking up

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707307 – and up some more

so almost out of the hole for the night when...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707313 – what the hell is this guy doing with the push – he may have a good draw but the board has paired – so might be drawing completely dead – lol – another one gets lucky

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1707317 – he’d have probably called off his whole stack pre with TT here – gotta try to hit sets at any price...

Basically- stuck 4 more buy-ins in this session. Not sure what to make of it – I think I’m just getting the nasty side of variance. Haven’t been playing the Thursday and Friday night maniacs that much but it seems that it’s close to impossible to make people fold anything vaguely playable pre, it’s impossible to make them fold a draw to overcards / backdoor straight or flush / gutshot on the flop. So basically – how do you play against this – fairly tight I’d assume – however – if you can’t hit, you can’t win.

Over the night I made a few well timed moves that took down pots. However, my C-bet success was probably around 10%. I know I got unlucky in a few big pots – and should have broken even for the night – well I think so anyways.

Lol – just looked at my account info – was rolled at $2855 at midnight last night, now rolled at $2313.managed to get PTY to give me a free $100 again so $2413 – 12 buy-ins away from moving up – fooooking great!

Think I’m gonna give poker a week off – anyways – it’s off to the races tomorrow – so maybe I’ll make back my weeks losses.

worst ever session.....ever!

How to lose 7 buy-ins by Ollie Power

Okies – so I started off the night getting really deep in the 888 20k gtd – finished 13th – which was good for like $140 profit – so not exactly retirement money.

Then I got back on to PTY where the games were fairly juicy.

1) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704237 – never normally call in these spots – but the vil was an absolute fish, I expected him to raise me with an 8 on the flop, so I put him on a big range and decided to make the call... bit of a mistake.

2) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704244 – this vil was playing like 50/3 – and I presumed he was stacking off with shit here – pitty he caught his Q on the river...

3) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704247 – Okies – vil is tight, but this hand didn’t play like KK or AA coz of the shove– it played a hell of a lot like AK – and what a surprise my QQ no good on the flop...

4) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704255 – this is why LAG on micro PTY is never going to work... – not sure about this hand – perhaps should have shoved or folded the flop – my plan was to shove any non diamond turn that didn’t look too menacing. – still have no idea of what the vil had – he was playing 52/17 – so I think it’s a fairly wide range – he had made previous calls from the sb with off-suite one gaps!

5) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704273 – absolutely no idea what this guy is thinking... he’s playing 68/19 – I presumed that any king would bet out or check raise the flop so presumed he was on a draw and for this reason chose to bet the river... would appreciate feedback on this one.

6) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704281 – first I get sucked in, then I get sucked out on... lmao

7) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704284 – not sure if I made a good fold here or not – he claimed that he had a missed draw and that he shoved coz he read me for AK – I’m not quite sure which draw didn’t hit myself – but – again, would like feedback on this one...

8) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1704288 – vil is playing 44/24 – so I decide I can make the call pre – on the flop I’m not sure what I should have done... I’ve got 12 outs – so perhaps the push is a better option...

okies – and basically, it was one of those nights – there’s a fair few unlucky hands – but I lost almost as much coz all my pre-flop play was being called- I could make it $11 pre and get 3 callers (I did with JJ –obv. two overs on the flop), and I then repeatedly missed flops and had C-bets called with absolute air (that somehow got there on the rivber) etc. Basically, I knew if I could pick anything up it was an outright value-fest – however, whatever I picked up just missed everything. What I’m not sure of is; the games were juicy, but I was stuck a fairly big number – should I have kept playing or not..?
Anyways – think that was my worst ever continuous session - $361 total – pretty fooking sick...

Gl at the tables, ty for reading.

Good week - could have been better.

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end of month update

Ok – end of month blog update. Well, it’s not been going all that great, very close to break even. Okies – I’ve played 17k hands and up $100. However, I’m much happier with my style: playing 16/11.

I know that I should be up more over this many hands – however – I’ve seen some horrible variance – esp on FT and Sun, however – PTY has been going pretty good. The main thing I’m happy with is the fact I can drop 4 buy-ins and still play good; in fact on one night I was stuck 5 buy-ins and ground 3 back before I quit for the night. In my opinion, in order to beat FT you have to play a very LAG style and really concentrate on the tables and the table selection – PTY on the other hand is certainly beatable playing fairly TAG with a bit of extra aggression pre. However, playing very aggressive on the flops and running big bluffs is certainly –ev; the value is because they cannot fold.

So yer – I’ve got a few hands below:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1650117 – should I have folded, vil is playing 39/28 from 38...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1650095 – do you think the way I played this hand was +ev? – vil is playing 100/27 from 7 – so I presumed AA was in his re-raising pre-flop range. My plan was obv. to get HU with the short stack – who I correctly believed had nothing. Also – this table was playing wild; I’d recently seen AK vs 66 AIP – so thought my JJ was massive. Lol.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1647101 – not so sure what to do here...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1658829 – or what he has here...

These are more “LOL donkament” brags – funny, none from FTP...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1658838 – lol donkaments...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1658882 – everyone wants 4-way action with KK...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1658889 – vil played bad – but I did love my river shove – think it looked like a bluff – he called with 2 seconds left – ship! Ship!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1658896 – Sun poker aint so bad.

Okies – well that’s been my month. Plans from here – well I’ve just started reading week – I would like to do a bit of work – but I also want to play 40 hours of poker before Sunday next week. The plan is to reach 30 buy-ins for 50/1 – coz this $50nl bull shit is killing me. Honestly, I believe with a bit of luck I could even start playing 50/1 by the Sunday. Will keep people posted with a Wednesday update.

Anyways – ty for reading – gl at the tables

Still bocked on FT H-core

Ok – so today – playing a $20 45 runner sng - $380 for 1st place. First hand – there’s been a raise and a call so I opt to set mine with TT in the SB – flop a set and manage to get TPTK to get it all-in and someone with a gutshot – a few hands later I run QQ into AK and AK and I’m now sitting on 7k (starting 1.5). Manage to make it to the final two when I lose 3 hands, 1) KK runs into AA, then QQ into KK, then QQ into A8 lol.
So decide to leave the hold’em for a bit and try 2-7 triple draw $1-$2. Start of playing well, however then get dealt 10 low – bet it all the way (and standing pat obv) against someone who draws 2 cards on the final draw! So obvious bet out – he then re-raises me with 8-6 low! Now, not being a good low-ball player and also tilting I manage to run 8-7 low into 8-6 low about 3 times and piss my last few $s.
So after a break – time for hold’em to get even again. 1st bocking is that PTY crashed as soon as I got on to it. So FT and sun poker – as per usual, the boring, action repelling fuckers combine with my constant lack of cards and I make a small loss on sun poker. On FT things go a little better or so I thought! After taking down a few pots I’m on a bit of a roll and at exactly the same time these two hands occur...
Okies – I am able to insta-call this guy knowing 100% that I’m ahead coz I re-popped him on the last three hands tbh I expect him to turn over AK/AQ here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1620705

and as i get outdrawn there i look up to see this stack shooting off aswell
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1620758

Wtf – closed every table straight away after that – what a joke
How do you beat FT?

This is why bluescouse beats Crypto!

Alright – Firstly I don’t want to be seen to be moaning – I’m running real good on PTY and am playing it pretty good as well – However – Crypto is the biggest bok ever – it has to be rigged!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1599037 – rigged!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1599041 – rigged!!
Ok – so sometimes I get my money in behind – but how am I meant to play this hand differently? – he’s playing 45/9 – lol - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1599018
This guy’s playing 75/20 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1599030 – rigged!!!
And there’s been a load more but my poker tracker has somehow lost them - lmao

midweek mid-stakes, and ssnl donkaments

Okies – little UB spin-up update. Basically – my AQ turned in to TPTK and I lost the roll to KK $285 pot (the biggest one I’ve ever lost). Can’t wait to have the roll for $1/$2 – there are some real donks out there and they’re worth so much more – lmao.
Just when I thought everyone played ABC poker and rather poorly on Party I got into this hand. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1595610 – I loved saying “so sick” in the chat-box – made me feel like Daniel Negreanu in High Stakes poker before donking off another $200,000. And they don’t need a flush-draw to get fruity – a gutshot is just as good...isn’t it? http://www.pokerhand.org/?1595619.
However – my session isn’t all brags. On sun poker I dropped 3 buy-ins. QQ vs AK all-in on the flop – he called with no-pair-no-draw. AA vs 67s – flop a set, get it all-in and lose to a flush, KK vs 97s – flop a set again! And get it all-in on the flop and you guessed it matey.

Anyways – just wanted to keep that short and sweet.
Ty for reading, gl at the tables

Monday blogaments

Basically – I wouldn’t be on a downswing if it wasn’t for FT – I have lost about $700 on FT since I started playing poker after the summer. All-in-all however, I’m only down $330. My thoughts in brief are: FT is almost certainly rigged, PTY is still awesome (and who cares if I won’t be making $100 a month in rakeback or able to get a FT T-shirt for every 3million raked hands) and that Sun Poker (Crypto ntwk) has to be the most passive poker site I have ever played on – when I get a hand or two I might actually be able to make a buck or two – lol.

Me getting dicked on – FT:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1589667 – I know, a fairly standard hand that I think I played fairly badly – only thing that made me get it all-in was the amount that went in pre-flop which made me feel rather committed to the pot – villain playing 30/13. All-in-all think it’s pretty obv what he’s got when he puts in the check raise – should I got broke here tho...?

Any other hand posts I could stick up from FT this week would be bad beat stories – so not much else to say – just seems it’s hard to get them to get any chips in without a big hand (normally bigger than mine – lol) – so no more FT for a while then.

PTY donkamentation
1) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1589641 –“ imbluffable” stands by his name and plays 67/17
2) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1589650 – Quite happy with the outcome of this hand obv. – not sure what others would say about the way I played it – due to the amount they called pre I hoped there would be another big pair out there that would call my insta-push and also did not want to get anymore cards out on the board. Odds are my 57% to his 42% so not a bad call on his part – slightly –ev call pre though... lol
3) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1589689 – I’m not posting this hand as a brag coz it played itself – but more to ask the question, if you have been check-raised (esp by the pre-flop raiser) and you have a nutty draw that’ll get there 1/3 of the time – is it +ev to push? – my feeling was this guy has very little fold equity here. Also – on this table I’m playing 14/10 L.
4) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1589700- how the hell do I get value here?
So – total roll across all accounts stands at $2216 – looking to make $800 before I take a 5 buy-in shot at 50/1 – and fook me if it doesn’t happen soon I’m going to top myself I think – lol. Only other note I should add is that I’m planning on reducing the number of tables I play and try to really crush them – I find it dull but I’m going to need to improve my winrate asap.

Also – the bankroll management has become a bit of a bore – I know it’s the only way to have long-term results etc etc – but I needed a bit of fun so I’ve opened a UB account with $50 for a spin-up. The start – Will convinced me that the best way to start was to play BJ – so $50 on the spot, I get 16 vs an A – a bad spot – so hit surrender. After a few wins and losses my account still stands at $50, but I now have 4.2 UB points – think that translates to 0.49c or summin’ sick.

Take the $50 to 50/1 – have a bit of luck and get up to $75 – time for $1/$2 – get it all-in pre against a short stack with AA against his AK - $100 pot – after that I managed to push up to $200+ before descending to $125, getting board and quitting. – spin-ups aren’t as fun as I imagined.

The plan now is to get to $225-$250 on $1/$2 before taking a half buy-in shot at $2/$4. I am planning to get my edge through good table selection and holding a string of Rosary beads to warn away the bad beats. I think religion is an important part of poker – as proven by this year’s WSOP ME winner. God bless his little spiritual self.

Anyways – will let you know how the spin up goes. And will keep you updated with the real roll building as well.

TY for reading, GL at the tables

10,000 hands later - $60 down

Okies – so a few weeks on and just shy of 10,000 hands from the last post and how’s my roll looking – well it’s at -$285 - $61 worse than the last update – lol.
Basically, I managed to go on a downswing of nearly 10 buy-ins, reduced it to three and now back to 5.5 – so it’s been fun... I’m now playing across 5 accounts. My big losses however have all been confined to FT where I’m stuck $422 for the last 30 days. I’m finding that the site is getting increasingly hard to play on – the players are often very tight and of many different standards making it a bit of a nightmare for multitabling.
For example:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570037 – have no stats on the villain... wasn’t expecting to be behind when that river was checked to me. Lol
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570051 – and then you get hands like this where you’re just shocked at how poor some of them play.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570058 – basically this is the only way to stack them ( I didn’t raise pre because villain was playing 10/5 – so was pretty sure that the hand only had set value)
But then again, there’s still a few players who can’t seem to fold TPTK – this pot is worth a lot to me coz it’s against Sbrugby’s nemesis. - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570105
.....lol donkaments mixmastered
Overall I’ve found that there are a heap of different styles on FT, and as I like to multi table, I’m finding it very hard to beat these guys. It seems that there’s some that’ll call with pretty much any two vaguely pretty cards pre flop and will call (or check min-raise) all C-bets and make crying calls to the river, there’s others who’ll refuse to put any money in with out the nuts, but most significantly there’s very few absolute donkeys. So many of the players are break-even regs who live off the rakeback deals etc. So, all-in-all after a rather shitty month I’m gonna give it a break for a while.

When things get shitty on FT I always go back to the happy place that is Party – even without it’s rakeback this Mecca for the sort of gamblers who find it hard to choose between craps or poker and play both games in much the same way.
I’ve been running nicely on PTY – making a half stack an hour average.
I found a great table earlier tonight (which helped me to climb near to the surface of my FT hole for the night)-
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570128 – villain is playing 35/3 – but my thoughts were that if he did have a set he’d have probably chosen to 3-bet the flop and therefore, my JJ must be good enough.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570131 – a few hands later I came up against this donk playing 79/25 – (the main reason I didn’t raise pre due to the way the table had been playing) – if I can call, make a hand, and get paid – why take risks?

Ok for some less donkish hands - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570156 – an interesting way to play TPTK I know – and I have to give Jack the credit as it was to his choosing – based on the opponents’ stats of 50/0 with an agro factor of 2.5!
This hand is very much up for suggestions: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570172 – villain is playing 30/20 which I found priced me into calling him down - just couldn’t work out why he chose to play the hand so fast, and then slow down so much...
Played a couple of hands against this opponent, obv. Mr Townsend’s (less talented) cousin. The first one played itself, the second – well I chose to play that in accordance to my opponent’s style...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570166
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570167

As is often the case with party – when I review my hand histories they seem very standard and simple – very little requires and discussion. I made money because people stacked off to me. I lost money on FT coz people refused to stack off to me – lol – what does this say about me as a poker player!

Plans for the next few weeks are to try to $800 so that I’ll have 30 buy-ins for 50/1. I’m going to stick to Party, but maybe integrate a few FT tables if they look fishy. I’m also going to try to build a bit of a roll in Sun Poker (crypto ntwk) because their rake back and monthly bonus deals are rather fruity – and the play is almost softer than party – but they’re not so quick to shove in their stacks...shame.

Also invested a few quid in a new monitor – Dell 27” which works well with my 17” laptop screen – I think I can 16 table FT quite nicely – perhaps this is the key to beating the nits. Hopefully it’ll pay for itself...

Anyways – at least I can look forward to the rake back that FT will be giving me on the 15th – it’s the only time of the month I can say yum yum on that site.

Cheers for reading – please comment on any of the hands

Gl at the tables.

Top of Form

Hard night...

Okies – so to set the scene I was tilting due to my internet connection which seems to suffer from the increased use it gets on Sunday evenings.
I’m stuck about half a buy-in and then I get into this hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1512969 – I checked the flop hoping to check-raise – then my comp disconnected, and when it reconnected I think I played the hand badly – however – I knew if I called his turn bet he would probably put me all-in on the river. Basically, this is open for discussion. Villain is playing 30/10/7
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1512982 – next hand I played KK like a donkey, should have bet the turn and folded the river – pretty obvious what he had. Villain is playing 42/8/4
Now down $100 so take a break and have dinner. Mmmm
****
Internet connection still a bit screwy but manage to play this hand before it fucks up again
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1512964 – if he hadn’t raised me on the flop I would have folded the river bet – but I don’t like people changing their story...
So down $75 for the night...
****
After another break I start playing again. I managed to lose $150 in this session and I’m not quite sure how I dropped three stacks.
I think I played the following hand quite well, but it’s open for discussion. Posted it because it’s a fairly common situation on SSNL tables.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1512998 – in this hand, after 2-betting the opponent and not getting raised I was happy to go broke on a board with no over’s – think this is an ok mentality – had no stats on the villain and he was a short stacked donkey as far as I was concerned.
And now the not so good ones:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1512910 – this was a bit of a tilt call on the turn... can I justify it?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1512921 – Okies my thoughts were; on the flop: how can I fold this hand? On the turn: he’s giving me 4:1 and there’s a 20% chance the board will pair and on the river – thank god for the 8, it just saved the latter half of my stack. Lol – anyone think I could have played this differently? Villain playing 40/6/4
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1512937 – this was kinda embarrassing when he almost timed out before making the call. My thoughts were, there is no way he’s checking a house or the nuts flush to me on the river – if I bet $20 he may think it’s a mis-click, call with a small flush or three of a kind Ts. Don’t know – as it played out it made me look like a donkey. Villain playing 44/5/5
There were also a fair few hands like this: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1513048 – villain playing 45/13/12 - I know this is a small pot but I cannot work out if I should be looking to call here... cannot understand his play...
Overall – so many hands where I would raise pre, C-bet in pos, get called and see that they were holding some raggy TP by the river – not sure if I should be increasing my aggression or reducing it...
Overall I hit very few sets over the course of the night, tbh I hit very few flops really. Lol. Having looked fthrough a shit load of hands I’m just beginning to think it was an unlucky night. It seemed if I had a pocket pair and they had overs they would hit their overs, and if it was the other way round I’d just not hit at all.
Anyways – down $225 on the night. Not feeling too shitty about it coz I don’t think I could attribute more than $40-$50 to pure tilt. And I didn’t get any horrible outdraws after the money went in. Just think I got on the nastier end of variance. Probably will hit the tables again on Tuesday and start trying to make it back. To make myself feel happier I re-loaded $100 as I made about $140 playing live the other night so think I should include the profit in my roll.

Ty for reading. Gl at the tables

The week...

Okies – so the week where I was planning on making loads of money and running my roll up – well – it didn’t really happen. Played a little on Monday and Tuesday, but spent half the time trying to get PTH and PAHud working properly – and in terms of profits I broke even.
Wednesday night home game – 10/25p with straddles. I bought in for £120 but only started with £50 on the table. A couple of hours later and I was stuck £40-£50. The game was fairly fishy so I decided to play a fairly weak; trying to make hands and get paid rather than make any plays. Had to lay down a few big ish hands after getting sucked out on, or appearing to.
By 1am I had £60 on the table (the remains of the £120) and started to make a few well times plays against those who could fold. After making back a little bit of cash the home game looseness got me back in the black when I managed to get into a £100 pot 3-betting all-in on a 7, 7, 2 board with my KK and getting called by 66.

An hour later and we were down to 4 handed, tbh the game was now only slightly +ev for me – most of the producers had gone broke. However, I managed to get into a big pot with Rich: I called a small raise out of pos with 66, flop fell 3x,5s,6s – I bet just under the pot (about £2.50) mainly because I know rich will either float me or raise – he does, making it £8 – I then make it £20 – and he insta-pushes. I have him covered but the call is about £100 (400bbs). I know I have to call, however, we talk a deal with my hand exposed and his covered and decide to run it for £100 – nothing too interesting comes on the turn and river and he flashes QQ before folding. I think the deal I made here was absolutely terrible – I should have called and then decided on offers – I was worried that he’d have a straight, or a draw to the straight, flush or both and would have a chance ranging from 25% to 65%. Basically, I should have played for the whole stack. Lol donkaments on my part.

I ended up playing in the game til 8am – which became very –ev for me, i made some bad plays and bad calls and ended up a £70 winner for the night. It’s hard to cash out of a game when you are the big winner and the host though. Lol.

****

Spent the rest of the week and most of the weekend locked in a sea of debauchery but tried to play this afternoon. It was a fairly poor idea; I was certainly not playing my a-game (due to the after affects of the weekend) and due to the foooooking internet connection which chose to render me offline as soon as I got into a big hand.

read the next post for the session report - lol

gl all

The summer...

I would like to say I achieved my goals: running my roll up to $6k and gaining experience from playing half a million hands +, however – it wasn’t to be. What poker I played I did after drinking, although, in my defence, I kept it to small tourneys and stts in an attempt to limit the assault on my bank roll. I think I did fairly successfully. I have to say my overall respect to those who make most of their income from stts has definitely increased; those things have to be the most frustrating little fuckers around – not going to run through the outdraws and bad-beats (mainly because I can’t remember them).

The summer has been slightly dull tbh. After making vague calculations of sums that I spent over the last three terms at Warwick I knew I needed to sort out a fairly solid income. So back down the poker rooms to be paid to take shit from gambling degenerates who honestly believed I was in complete control of the cards I squeezed off the deck. This was then combined with the stress of being paid in a variety of different ways ranging from an hourly rate, rake commission and purely on tips; meaning that my ‘stable’ job could earn me half as much for the same hours one weekend as it did for the previous. Overall, I really fukin hope I never have to work in another gambling dive again.

Other than the poker dealing I also did a month of 9-5ing at a London trading house. It was an interesting experience, but I have to confess the overall impression of myself that I left was that of a lazy cunt who found it hard to make it to work before 11:30am, read the paper for 2 hours a day and always stank of the previous night’s alcohol. So, me thinks there might not be a job waiting for me there for after graduation.

I didm however, managed to get out of the country for 10 days in Ibiza. It was pleasant apart from the intense heat, the fukin outrageous prices and the parasitical Spanish people who were getting very rich as a result. Overall, good fun had by all…

Basically, how I see it now – I have two weeks left before I have to be in Warwick, and I’m really going to try to make the most of my time in terms of poker. My aim is to go for the complete package; try to eat healthily, get more exercise and reduce the evening’s intake of toxins. Hopefully, this’ll put me in much better stead at the tables, especially in terms of reducing my losses when things start going downhill.
Three concepts have certainly been compounded this summer.
1) Bad-beats happen to everyone – but it doesn’t matter how sick they are, they’re still really, really boring to everyone else. The amount of times I found myself saying, “If he was very unlikely to win, surely you wanted him to get his money in?” So, I’m going to try my best to analyse my play without thinking about my roll total - and certainly try to not dwell on bad luck.
2) The combination of pride and tilt is a danger to any player regardless of their ability and bankroll. I was dealing at the Western and watched as one of the bosses managed to loose about £4.5-5k playing £2/£2 PLH in about four hours. It included the following hand; seat 3 sb, 4bb, 5posts £5 straddle, the boss is next to act and raises pot (£19) with 9-5o – two folds and a call from the button, flop is 3,9,5 – somehow, with a combination of raises and re-raises the boss managed to get the button all-in on this board for a further £1200 and saw that he’d been called by bottom set. I’m not saying I’m a protégé, but I’m sure I could have chucked the two pair for 600 bbs!
3) Finally, alcohol (and most other intoxicants) is a great way to relieve you of your roll. There was always a couple of people who’d walk in after a long night out and manage to loose upwards of a grand on the £1/£1 PLH game.
So from this my master plan was formed – firstly try my best for healthy living; feel good, play good and get rich – lol.

Also – I think tilt can be reduced by expensive technology – so I’m looking to buy a 27” or 30” dell LCD screen to run off my new Vaio. Hopefully, these items can be seen as investments and not losses – but only time will tell.

Finally, as I only managed to clear half on my FT bonus, I’m looking to start up a new account with a nice bonus scheme some time soon. Anyone have any ideas of which site to go through?

need help!

Okies - just bought a new laptop - I saw it as +ev (and it better make me win!)

however, windows vista is clever, and it won't let me install me slightly cracked copy of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional - therefore i have a million problems with my PTH

1) - i think i need to buy the fukin software again, coz i have it on two computers already.
2) - my existing database is in MS access (which is a fukin expensive program now that i can't have it for free)
3) - if the two previous problems were sorted i wouldn't have a clue how to just keep adding to my existing database

basically, i need help -
1) can i change the format of my existing database so it's in excel or summin? (coz i can get this on theOffice student edition for about £400 cheaper)
2) how would i go about linking the database to the new PTH etc
3) anyone know where i could get my hands on Microsoft Office 2007 professional for a "little" less than the list price?

Poker on the back burner for now

My feeling is - I have taken about 3 weeks away from the game now, and although I can find time here and there, I just know it's gonna take me a session or two to get my game back to where it should be - so if I can give myself a 3 day period in which to bash it out i'll go for it - but at the moment with my current work schedule it's gonna have to wait.

I would say however, i'm making a little bit here and ther from matched betting and have just started the bonus bagging, it's true what people say about blackjack, it's like having a cup of tea for gamblers - i quite enjoy it. (sure it will become horrible if i carry on for too long tho)

Another plan for next year is to try and get a bank roll of £2k together to start arbitrage betting. I'm researching different methods accross both financial spreads and sports. It seems that you can spend a long time finding an arbitrage (obviously), but there are some sites who for about £40-£50 a month will notify you of any that they can find - however, i'm not one to give £50 to anyone without good reason - so if anyone knows any more about the concept please let me know.

Other than that,
GL at the tables, sorry to hear that Warwick had no WSOP cashes this year.

Not got round to much play.

Just a quick one: I haven’t been playing much poker recently coz of the 5 days a week of work and some 13 hour shifts! Also I’m off to Ibiza tomorrow so, with a bit of luck, the hotel won’t have wireless internet and I won’t ruin another holiday with 9 hour stints. Anyways – hope to get back to the tables on my return – I have to finish off a FT bonus (I have about $300 left to clear by the 24th). But until then GL at the tables everyone – and good luck to all those representing Warwick out in the WSOP.

Charlie, Paul, Partying, Poker and a 2:1

I've just got my second year results and managed to average 62 without any fails (inc. a 1st in one exam paper and in one assessed essay). I'm pretty happy with my results after being called many things this year including a lazy bastard and a gambling addict. Well, I always like to put two fingers up to those who doubt me, however as I didn't get a first I feel this is a fair one finger salute.

Not too much celebrating until I get a day off work on Sunday.

Not much poker recently -

Well last week saw very little play – I lost during the 3 sessions I played and was stuck $110 (well $130 but I got a $20 bonus). Was planning on playing during my days off but I ended up getting pissed on the Sunday and recovering on the Monday so not really in the correct mindset. On Tuesday I played an hour session at work, playing 5 tables coz the club was quiet and I made about $45, it was really good to have played this session because it showed me that my play is still good and that, as was conferred by many comments on the forum, last week’s losses were mainly due to bad luck.

I got home at 1am and decided to play the P-Stars $18k guaranteed ($27.50 buy-in). I’ve got a great record in this tourney and came about 50th out of 1200 runners. I don’t think I can put that all down to luck alone, I played ABC, didn’t stack anyone on a cooler and hung on to my chips when I didn’t have good cards. I think my success has often been due to the failure of many others – the stacks are 3k but people still play as if they’re 1.5k – which just means if your patient you can really get deep as long as you don’t splash around. I saw people calling off 1/3 of massive stacks for “set value” which meant that I was able to do fairly well playing strong hands and folding the rest. The problem I have is being able to make chips when it counts, and I need to stop worrying about making the money and focus more on making the final table. I have to confess I folded JJ during the bubble to an early pos. raise and perhaps should have pushed. I have never placed outside of the top 225, but have never placed better than 50th (out of 5 attempts) so need to work on some of my later stage strategy.

Over the next few weeks I want to try to play a bit more poker, but I don’t want to play when I’m not 100% focussed, such as after an 8-10 hour shift. So it’s gonna be hard to balance.

I’m going to start my matched betting soon (bonus whoring on bookie sites). I managed to make £35 on bet-fair quite slyly. I deposited £25 with a bonus code to get me 100% matched bonus and then got a call the next morning to say they’d credit me a further £10 if I made a £5 bet that day. I bet on Roger Federer to beat some 175th in the world no-hoper, and made 50p from my winning £25 bet. However I unlocked £35 of bonuses – score! – my plan is to use whatever profit I make from matched betting to bolster my roll so that I can afford to take a stab at the 50/1. I am currently rolled at $2375 (which is $499 down for the year) – if I can make another $625 from playing and matched betting over the next few weeks I’ll be able to take a stab at the 50/1. I’m pretty sure I can beat that level, I’m just worried about how badly I might take the larger swings. Does anyone have any advice on that? Will wait a while before my next update now, well… at least until something happens.

Ty for reading, gl at the tables.

Fingers crossed it gets better - $130 down for two days

Well, where to start. Today I did 8 hours work trying to sign people up to the Gutshot online poker client, I signed up 8 people, why? – coz the Gutshot poker client looks like it was last updated in 1995, it’s absolute WANK!

Got home and played poker, also went a bit sour. I’m now stuck $130 for the week – it’s turning into a bit of a bad run, I’m hitting like 1 flop in 10 and getting check min re-raised every time I make a c-bet. And whenever I do make a hand they either got shit, or summin a little better. However, I do think I’m playing quite well; the following hands are not bad beat stories – but I would like to hear what others have to say.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1211232
– this was where it all started tonight – why, whenever I have QQ and make a set on the flop do I always loose to 3c5c – also, why do people love to call me pre with any two cards from the blinds. this is another time that old 3c-5c stripped me of my stack from a while back
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1211248

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1211197
– would hate not to stack someone in the villain’s position – I managed to keep most of my stack

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1211206
– and this guy should have stacked me too me thinks – btw: I was planning on check-raising the flop, however I checked the river to him because if made a possible straight.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?1211211
– okies, in regards to this hand, I didn’t bet the flop because I had been called remorselessly on this table, and had also fallen victim to my new ultimate-tilting move, the check/min-re-raise on several occasions. Again, due to the fact the they check that you both tight and passive before they let you play ssnl on FT meant he got very little for his hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1211204
– by the end of the night I was seeing ghosts in every shadow which is perhaps why I played this badly on the turn – but I don’t understand all their floating on FT.

Overall, tonight’s 2 hour session saw a $85 downswing. I’m not too upset, all the above hands were during that session and I certainly should and could have been stacked twice with my AA vs a set, so I think the way I played the hand both times saved me a load of cash – and so did the shit way they played it! All-in-all I’m $110 down for the week (coz I got a $20 bonus, yay) and I’m just hoping that my downward spiral will stop here, I think I’m playing OK poker, this is just a bad run, hopefully I can come out of it and end the week with some profit.

Ty for reading – please comment on the hands – all advice is appreciated

Going pro..... for 3 months

Okies – so day 1 of trying to make money…

Well I managed to get a couple of jobs at the Western Card Club (London) – dealing on the Friday and Saturday and also 3 days a week signing people up to the Gutshot online poker client at the Western Card Club – I know it seems strange. I also played a 2 hour session on FT.

This had been the first session in a bit so I knew I may be a little rusty – and I ended up $46 down – which is pretty standard variance I guess. I lost a $40 pot to a 3 outer – but hey, I’m not gonna cry about it, he had nothing but air when he pushed and I made a good call. Then there followed this hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1207463

There’s a very good case for folding pre – I insta-called coz I was a bit pissed about the rivering about 30 seconds earlier. And I the guy may have thought I could be raising light due to tilt – or that I’d call with shit coz I was tilting… perhaps the better choice… however his stats were 36/4 - 97

This one came an hour later:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1207455

Okies – I know I played this hand kinda shit – I didn’t have stats on the guy and so I wanted to keep the pot small. I put him on either TPGK (possibly TPTK) or JT for two pair on the flop. On the turn I thought that two-pair (thus a house) looked more likely and that’s why I folded the river… When I asked what he had he said T3 – which made me laugh but I started to believe him later on when PAHud got his stats up at 74/7. Perhaps I should have called – or maybe he had a set/top two turned house. Also – me thinks I only have to be correct 2 in 7 times to make this a +ev call… so I think I already know what’ll be said – “fold on the turn or push it all-in” possibly…

So anyways – hopefully I’ll have time to play some poker with my 5 days a week of work – because Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be finishing at midnight/2am I think It’ll be quite a good time to bash out a couple of hours at the end of my shift.

But the main aim is to take my $2350 and turn it into $6k by the end of the summer break – I think this is not too high a target and I would really like to be looking at $8k but we’ll see.

Ty for reading - gl all


(ps. If anyone can give me any advice about making money match betting (bonus whoring) it’s be appreciated.)

Some stats - 9k hands

Just worked out how to find out my stats for the last 30 days. I'm playing 15/11 - which is an improvment. I'm winning 63% of my showdowns (which I think is shit...) Okies - so yer - I think I'm firmly routed in the TAG camp, but maybe that's good.... - Yes, my LAG bashing continues, and now I have CardRunners' Muddywater on my side - If you are a CR member please watch the start of "Muddywater 75 ($.50-1 NL FTP) 5/09/07" he'll explain all that i have been saying- lmao

The month evaluated

Think I’m going to put my Monday update up now to stop me playing for a while. Everything is going great; this week I made about $190 and got $100 in rakeback. It’s now a month on from changing my game and I’ve added 1/3 to my roll. I have gone from having a roll of $1577 to $2389. I’ve played relatively little poker too because I have been working towards my exams and I had two loosing weeks. Even taking this into account I am earning roughly $18 an hour playing poker (not including tournament time).

So I wanted to use this post to try and evaluate my game. Ok I lost money for two weeks in a row – why? Well the first week would have been a winning week if I didn’t drop nearly 4 stacks on a hung-over session – okies I got a bit unlucky but I was trying to play 5 tables and I could barely work out my holdings let alone their range. The week following that I was completely demoralised and I think I played fairly bad poker as well as just kept getting consistently unlucky in the big pots – all-in-all I lost $38 that week and I recon I should have been up a stack or two statistically. However, I still think half my losses this week were due to bad play.

I think my new game is so much better than before because I’m trying to expand my edge constantly. My table selection, well it was non existent before – just find 9 tables asap and get playing. Now I will find tables, “sit-out” and observe the players before I get involved. Also, really getting the feel for the tables before I play has helped my adjust my play. For instance, I started putting into practice the CR ideas during the weekday sessions, however, when I tried to use aggressive post-flop bluffs against them on the weekends they kept calling. I have to confess that before, I barely noticed the difference in play between Monday morning and Saturday night.

I still haven’t moved back to PTY for any real period of time. The reason is I don’t believe I can really practice my game on PTY nl:$50. I’ll get in situations where I’ll 3-bet the button with AQ and get 4 callers etc – therefore, I just feel that I can make more through tight play with very little aggression – and I really want to open up my game, FT lets me do that.

I want to try to adapt a more Laggy approach to my game, and I think on the midweek NL:$50 on FT it’s actually possible to make this work. I’m watching the CR videos and trying to bring a few of their strategies into my game – obv. the players aren’t thinking on as many levels as they would be at the higher stakes so I’m not going to try anything that complex.

Using PAHud and PTH have been great – I now datamine FT for hours each day. I feel it gives me a great edge esp. when I first sit down at the table. Using these programs has definitely contributed to my success this month.

I think that perhaps the biggest positive change in my game has been my attitude. I concentrate on every pot regardless of how much money is in it. I really think about how I’m feeling before I sit down to play a session, and I don’t play if I’m not feeling about 95% perfect. I have certainly shed my defeatist attitude and am taking bad beats much better than before. They still piss me off but they are not as damaging as before. Prior to re-evaluating my game I would play 9 tables, and be loosing on most of them, then get a big hand, stack someone and then be up $20-$30 for the session – therefore, if that big hand went wrong I would be stuck $70-$80 for the session – you can see the predicament. I believe now I’m trying to beat the game and play good poker rather than primarily make money.

So my plans for the future: well, with no summer jobs lined up as yet I will have to see my poker as a bit of a job. I would like to start bonus-bagging as well – so maybe use the mornings for bonus-bagging, the afternoons for tourneys and satellites then hit the cash games in the evenings. I need to make just over $600 before I start playing the 50/1 and I’m really hoping I wont ever have to look back. I think if I can play successfully at 50/1 over the summer I can definitely make a fair bit of cash. I want to start playing more Stars tourneys – with the new 3k starting stack I feel I certainly have an edge. I have played 3 $18k guaranteed and have finished 220th, 196th, and 68th – although I am loosing for this tourney overall I still think I am +ev in the long run. As I said I also want to branch out into bonus bagging, it sounds like free money – and as it requires patience rather than skill it’d be an ok thing to do whilst I’m in bed every morning – hell I could even do it with a hand over. Lastly I would like to branch into some sort of trading, I think my dad has a good idea of the markets – however, he is less of a gambler than me and so favours the low risk side of investing – whereas I would prefer to try for larger profit margins. If anyone would like to give me some advice on how to invest, and better still – what to invest in, it’d be much appreciated.

TY for reading

(ps. I think I will avoind the tables until next monday (25th) - I have exams on tuesday and thursday next week and will be pissed or hung over until monday - so this is the safest decision!)

Horses: +ev or -ev.......?

Managed to take a bit of flack the other nigh when I claimed that I was a +ev horse bettor. So after making my claims I was I decided to get on the phone to the guy who introduced me to the wonderful world of horse gambling to try and work out my profits and losses over the last few years. Sadly, like all big gamblers, although he was great at remembering the winners he’d picked – the loosing bets seemed to elude him. But we managed to put together a bit of my horse gambling legacy.

I thought I was at least a teenager before I got my first bet down, but he proved me wrong, my first two bets I made in 1998 – it was a family owned horse, and was pretty unknown. So 1998 – I made two bets, Graphic-Equaliser to win in both the Ladbrook Hurdle and the Tote Gold Trophy at 20:1 and 16:1 respectively. – I was betting big with £5 on each race (about 100 times less than my gambling buddy). It couldn’t have gone better, Graphic raced in the Ladbrook Hurdle at 10:1 – so it was lucky we had our bets on fixed odds, and he won by about 5 lengths as I remember. By the time of the Tote Gold he was the 3:1 favourite and we had him at 16:1. So I ended the year a £180 winner – I think the best part was I couldn’t get any bets down myself so I was never able to think “this is easy” and spunk my winnings in the bookies.

The next year Graphic sadly had to hit the sack indefinitely and that was the end of my gambling for 2 years. Then, just before I went off to Spain for a week in Easter my gambling buddy told me he had heard “something” and to try to get a bet down on Papillon to win the Grand National, however, I left without giving him the money for the bet. But then the day of the race came up and I ended up in a restaurant full of ex-pats and in the corner there was a man taking bets, and the best bit was he was taking them on the basis of the odds printed that morning – so I got £5 on Papillon at 33:1. Needless to say the outcome got me hooked – I was up £165.

2001 was fucked up by foot and mouth. I’m not sure why because I swear horses can’t get it. Anyways, the year was dry and I didn’t back a single race. What made it worse was that a little bit of info had come my way about a horse called Best-Mate – and that eyar he would have raced as the favourite in the Cheltenham Gold Cup (but it was cancelled). Next year, however, I got my usual £5 down on Best-Mate and he didn’t disappoint. The Grand National also went well for me as I had my £5 on Bindaree at 30:1 (you gotta love fixed odds). Just under £200 up for the year.

2003 was a nice year as well – we got our money down on Best-Mate as soon as we could find a bookie to take the bet (about 2 and a half months before the race – hahahah) – and yet again he did it. I also made hit 2nd and 3rd with each way shots in the Grand National. By this point, at the fine age of 16, my gambling buddy decided to take off the £5 cap on my bets and I believe I ended this year up around £300-£400 for the horses. Only problem was I was now betting other sports (I had my fake ID) and loosing rather consistently – I didn’t quite appreciate the advantage of inside information – something I don’t have in motor racing and football.

2004 was when I started really gambling the sports hard, and loosing hard-core. I really couldn’t understand why I couldn’t pick winners. But luckily the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the National Were coming up and I “knew” the winners. I had studied the form for the Grand National and I watched as Amberleigh House came in first at 25:1 (again fixed odds, race started at 16:1) to the tune of about £500. And Best-Mate made it his third win in a row in the Cheltenham Gold to the tune of £300. Only problem was how much I had lost that year – which I think mean I was still stuck.

2005 was my dry year. My contacts had dried up as Best-Mate had died at the end of the 2004 season. I had never kept any books before but I was now not able to rely on these big wins to keep my head above water so I stopped betting altogether. I really wanted to pick a winner in the Grand National and I spent days studying the form; I think I backed 4 horses, all to win – among them I had the favourite. Sadly I placed my bets the day before the race, and with no inside info I had him at the rather fukin stupid 8:1 – so yay, I think I made about £40 when I take into account the other 3 losers. Only thing that was good about this year was Boxing Day, my gambling buddy called me from a race meeting he had met up with some “friends from back home” and gave my his forecast for the day – I can’t remember their names, but every horse came in first – the catch was Christmas had just passed and I only got about £10 on each horse – so a day that could have made me £2k only made me about £250.

2006 – I placed a few bets during the year. But they all lost or came up with small wins because I backed the favourite on the day of the race like the average mug. Then the Grand National came along and I got in touch with my gambling buddy to work out a bit of a game plan. He’d been in contact with some of his mates across the sea in Ireland and they were all talking about Numbersixvalverde. I wasn’t too happy backing a horse whose name was too long for the bookies slip, and had only had one real success (the Irish National) – but I decided to go for it anyways. I got him two weeks before the race at about 30:1 which was absolutely sick – especially as I backed him to win. I decided to mix it up a bit that year and I stuck in some horses to place. I even drew up a short list to run tri-caster (this is when you choose 1st, 2nd and 3rd). I had about £150 on this race, by far my biggest ever outgoing on any race meeting. Well – Numbersix didn’t let me down, and I had backed 2nd and 3rd to place. Although I collected £450(ish) from the bookies, what nearly killed me was that I had got a tip on the day of the race which compelled me to change 3rd place on my tri-caster – that change cost me about £20,000.

2007 – lets not talk about that – Silver-Birch was a three-legged donkey who should never have had a chance in perfect conditions – what happened!?!

So anyways, this is my horse betting diary of the last 9 years. I think my wins have definitely come up way over 4 figures. The only problem was that I had too many leaks and was way too happy to try and pick the winners myself. The reason I think I was a +ev horse bettor was mainly because my information often allowed my to place bets several weeks and sometimes months before the race meeting had started. If you ask for fixed odds at this point you run a load of risk, but I you have a good bit of info you can make a killing. Overall I have found that if you bet the favourite, once he is the favourite – you’re making a massive –ev bet. There are few hurdle races where any horse is a good bet at less than 8:1 – and even at these odds you’re a sucker. Betting horses to place never made me much money either and the risk is so much bigger. I think I avoided being a sucker for all these years, but I have to say – unless I start getting the information that I used to I’m probably going to duck out of this world, coz 99.5% of the gambling public are suckers and I don’t think I need to add to that statistic.

I remember meeting a lady in a pub a few months back, and for some reason we got on to this topic, and ended up reminiscing about Best-Mate. She claimed to have made £5k off that horse! – However, she ended up telling me how she’s given up the big betting because her info had dried up; apparently she’d been friends with a few stable boys who knew almost as much a jockeys when it came to the horses conditions but had lost contact over the years. I think the sad fact is, unless you own a horse or have very close contacts with a big player in a syndicate etc it’s very hard to grind out an edge. Without this advantage you just look like a broke poker player; speculating for the rail…

Back in the black! (for the week that is)

Last week was pretty good – By Saturday I had made my target figure of $250 but spunked about $20 on P-Stars sngs – lol – I think I’m now stuck something like $900 on that fukin site. So totals for the week – Ended up $240, so I’m now at $2,078 and I’m $795 in the red for the play this year –an improvement!

Overall – I think I deserved to make money this week – the last two weeks I’ve been following my old trend of play bad, get stuck, play for hours trying to break even, and then I managed to follow that up with a bit of bad luck in big(ish) hand to end up stuck a nice figure. So since then I’ve really been trying to improve my discipline and I think it’s certainly affected my profits.

I made a fair but of my money out of the tight players that go online at the start of the week. I know, and am constantly told how tight I am, but at least I am aggressive when I choose to play a hand – unlike some of these kids. So yer – I found it easy to grind a profit out of them. Won a couple of “no-brainer” pots, like flopping the nuts flush against a smaller flopped flush – Sorry ‘jocelyn85’, and won a few nice pots with sets etc – inc a very big pot (for 50nl) on Friday night – I had been raising up almost every hand on this table coz they were so fukin tight – then I pick up 55 from late, raise, no action, 44 from mid, raise, no action, 33 from UTG raise and the SB decided to flat call with QQ – we’re both sitting $65 deep. Flop is 3,J,7 rainbow – he checks to me and I bet ¾ pot, he raises and I re-raise – he then insta-pushes – I call and hold – this is typical of Friday night play, basically if you make hands you’ll make money.

There were a few hands I’m not sure I played well:

$35 pot – I call $1.75 pre in the SB with AJo. Flop is 9hAdKd – I check and the player bets $2 – I raise to $7 – he swells up and calls – turn Jh – I decide to check again (wrongly) and he bets $7.5 into $18.50 – the size of the bet worried me – so I decided to just call (mmm) – river is Th – horrible card – I call and he pushes for $32 into $35 – I opt to fold deciding that his most likely holding is AQ – or perhaps a suited Ah – either way he’s got me beat – I think I should have exercised more aggression on the turn when I was probably good. – I just didn’t want to go broke on 2-pair on that board.

$45 pot – UTG flat calls and MP raises pot – I re-pot with JJ on the button, bb calls and the original raiser calls – flop – 9s3h7d – it’s checked to me I bet $14 into $21.75 pot – SB pushes for $36 total and the other player folds – I decide I have to lay my hand down. My thought process was: 1 only made hand he can push here that I can beat is TT. He started the hand on $43 in chips – if he had 8-T (or other check raise all-in coz I’m a fish drawing hands) would he call $7 pre? – also, FT everyone loves to float these big pre-flop bets out of position with big PPs – so I deduced that he probably had KK or AA. However, to come to this decision I had to factor in the illogical nature of ssnl play – perhaps I’m over-thinking the situation and he’s sitting on AK and has put me on the same sort of hand…

$25 (ish) hand – OK I played this on another PC so this is from memory. I had KQ and raise on the button – one caller in the bb – flop 7s8hQd (I think) – he bets pot – so I raise 3 times his bet – he dwells and eventually calls – turn is Xx and he bets ¾ pot at me – I decide to fold – I don’t want to get into a big pot without even TPTK – however, when I thought about it I came to the conclusion that what could have happened was that he made a stupid, out of pos raise with a draw on the flop – then called my re-raise – then when his card didn’t come decided to take another stab at it. If he had a hand he was sure of why not check raise me on the turn – it’s pretty obvious that I’m gonna bet out again as I raised his flop bet. So again not sure of this one.

Anyways – good week. Not sure how much I’m going to play between now and the Monday after next because I have lots of revision to do. The last thing my roll needs now is a damaging revision tilting session to take a bite out of it.

Would really appreciate a bit of feedback on my tricky hands. Thanks for reading. GL

Emily Parr: gorgeous but bigoted

Okies – a little off the poker topic. Big-Brother 8: I decided on the first night that Emily Parr had a chance to get deep in this year’s BB, and was delighted to see PTY had her at 20:1 – so I got $20 on her that night. Today I found she had been removed from the house for making a racist comment towards Charley. Not very clever of Emily I have to admit, esp. after good old Jade G. destroyed her career through some comments on celeb BB. However, one thing that always gets me is; what would have happened if it was the other way round… Ice Cube, for instance, managed to publish a song called “Cave Bitch”, explaining what he though of white females – I think his views are just as disgusting as any Nazi BNP bigot – and just as unfounded. However, should he get away with it?

Guess I’m pissed off about loosing my bet in a bit of an unjustified way – but I think I make a fair point; there’s no such thing as a black racist…

Another week in the red...

I think one of the main problems with this week was the Sunday 27th – it was the end of week 2 and I blew the weeks profits in 1 hour of semi-questionable play whilst rather hung-over…

Monday and Tuesday I scarcely racked up 1 and a half buy-ins. I got sucked out a couple of times when I got some short stack all-in with middle-pair no kicker etc – but nothing to rant about. Then Wednesday saw a 2 buy-in swing. I dropped a buy-in and a half before I settled into my game, the tables kept breaking up and it was really pissing me off, kept getting my C-bets check-min-raised etc which put me in a bad frame of mind. Really, I only have myself to blame for this loss. However, I was coming back well and narrowed the margin to 1 buy-in by relying on my stats and making some tough calls against some rather agro players. Then my chance to break-even for the night: this guy has raised every hand, is massively aggressive etc, he raises from the SB and I call with 78, flop is 4,7,8 two hearts, he raises, I re-raise and he raises back - I think there's a chance he got lucky and flopped a set - but I don't think he's good enough to bet out with it, I know he could be doing this with an OP or even a flush draw - so I push and he insta-calls with AA - turn and river are 2, 2 – great….

So I decided to rectify the Wednesday session and Thursday was…well probably some of the worst poker I have ever played, mixed with some nasty luck. 1­) $50 pot - I have JJ on the button, MP with half a buy-in opens by min-raising, and gets two callers – I pop it up to $5 and MP calls me. Flop is 2,5,6 – he checks it to me and I bet ¾ pot – he pushes – I call, he shows 5s6s…. need I say more - . 2) $40 pot. I have 76o and raise from the button, two callers - flop Js, 5c,3c - I bet 3/4 pot and get one caller, turn is another J - it's checked to me so I decide that the opp has a flush or str8 draw so I bet 3/4 pot again - he min raises - I fold. Not sure what he had here - maybe AJ, maybe a set - Think I was correct to take a stab at it - and I just got unlucky. 3) $80 pot - I had JJ in the SB – button raises to me, and I (for some stupid reason) decide to just flat call. The flop is 3s 5s 2s and I check to, he mashes the pot button which makes me think – more than anything he wants the pot right now, so I call. Turn 6c, again I check and again he bets out – now it doesn’t make much sense, if he had flopped a big flush – why bet so strong, the turn brings the str8 into play – and again he plays strong, the river is 5d and he bets $24 into $30 – at the time I just thought, nothing he has done makes any sense – I’ve been calling (most likely drawing) and his strong hand, which he apparently made on the flop, is “clearly” better than mine so why bet so much – in the end I call, he has 5,5, for quads. Overall, I think I played this hand like a moron – should have raised pre, check-raised the flop and then folded to his action. Finally 4) $40 loss, I have AA on the button and raise it to $2, 1 caller - flop - Q,x,x, - he bets pot - I raise pot, he calls, and pushes the turn - X- I call river Q - he wins with KQ - nice little suck out. 5) $65 pot – my only decent winning pot of the night: I have JJ in MP and make it $1.75, button calls, flop is 4d 8d 7d, I check, he bets $3.50, I decide that there’s a good chance he has nothing, I have the diamond draw and an over pair, I decided to assess the turn, Qs, not likely to help either of us – I check and he makes it $7.50 – I still have a draw, and I’m unsure as to his holdings other than a flopped flush or possibly a set – both fairly unlikely, River 3h – again I check, he makes it $19.50 – it’s to be a hard call, but I just can’t think why he’d bet so much. If he flopped the flush, he’s played it like it’s very dangerous, If he flopped a set, why the big river bet, If he got lucky and turned the Q – well betting $20 is only gonna get a call from a better hand, finally, my likely holding – a AdXx – Why try to get such a big bet out of me? – I call, he shows 5s 5c. – ended the session $80 down…

Only bit of luck on Thursday was when I played Party Poker for the first time in ages. I picked up AK in MP and raised to $2 – SB then pushed for $20 – I decide I’m way ahead of his range, and at worst 50/50 – I call – hit nothing and expect to lose – but nope – he has KQ… I then got very lucky in a $130 pot, I flopped middle set against top set – all-in on the flop, turn and river make 4 diamonds on the board and my 6d is good enough to scoop the pot… guess I can’t moan about bad beats…

I decided on Saturday to stay in and play because I was on $0 for the week. Saturday action was irritating to say the least; I took down a few pots early on and made about $30 quickly. Then it all went a bit wrong. 1) $65 pot - I raise with T8o on the button and get called by the BB who has AA - flop ATT and he insta-bets pot - I slowly call, I put him on a good ace or a bad T - he bets the turn so I push - he almost times out before making the call with 2nd nuts - lmao. After that there’s about two hours of not hitting anything and repeatedly getting raised of what I thought were fairly safe C-bets, this was punctuated with picking up big PPs, raising it up – flopping the nuts set and then getting no action. I made a couple of stupid plays, calling a guy out of pos with an up-down draw and a pp on a flushing board – then betting ¾ pot when the turn brought the flush card – he called me down with 88. The a bit of weekend fish frying: I made $50 playing AJ in a $40 pot against q2 - he was all-in with no pair and no draw, hmmm. I also played KK aganst some guy - we got it all-in on a j-high board and he had ace-high no draw- and thank-god didn't hit.

Only one hand was a bit of a mystery, $20 pot, SB raises I call in the BB with QKo, flop T,Q,Xx - he bets pot - I raise to $10 he calls, turn 5c (a second c) he bet's $15 - he either had AK, he may have had a set, but why not re-raise on the flop) he may have had KJ (possibly KcJc) and decided to bet his draw. Perhaps a good call here - however I would be playing for my stack… any comments?

Sunday – I only managed to play a bit of poker. I got no real hands but I managed to make about $25 – almost making it the most profitable day of the week. Anyways, feel free to comment on any of the hands.

I ended the week down $38 – not terrible, but could and should have been better – I have to stop playing hours of loosing poker when I’ll only play 1-2 hours when I’m winning. Anyways, still loads of work to do to get my roll ready for the summer.

NL$50 - whose better value, the weekend maniacs or the midweek nits?

Okies – basically, the profits have been on their way south for two weeks now. I’m going to give a proper break-down of where money has been lost, as of 8pm Sunday 3rd I’m currently down $57 for this week and $16 for the previous – so no disaster – but not great considering the time and effort. Losses have been a mixed bag of a few outdraws and some very questionable play on my part – will go through the key hands tomorrow.

However, this was a theory I had and would like feedback on; although the action is much livelier on the weekends, when running fairly average in terms of hitting flops and picking up hands perhaps beating the weekday nits at ssnl is easier than the weekend maniacs. On Saturday night I hit some great hands – flopped some big sets mainly, however, they never caught when I caught so I ended up down (I only really made one bad call) – however, towards the end of the night I picked up two mediocre hands and stacked two donkeys to reduce the damage – and although these pots were easy money I found it very difficult to take down pots without the goods either pre-flop or even on the nicest textured boards – everyone was playing back at me.

Anyways – I’m basing my conclusions on three weeks of play on FT so feel free to criticise.

Okies – bit of a midweek update for ya. Basically, things aren’t looking all that peachy. Sunday, as I mentioned was a bad session – however, I think of the $160 I lost, only about $75 was bad luck. I wasn’t catching cards, and it seemed people didn’t like to fold much; but that’s not the best excuse for loosing. I made some moves, as I described that anyone who had played poker for a day would fold to – but they kept on calling me down. What I failed to do was adapt…

Monday went ok, and so did Tuesday, I made $40 and $50 without too much trouble. However, I played a session at 1am on Wednesday that went south to the tune of two buy-ins.

The Wednesday session, I started playing and I was getting tilted slightly by the constantly breaking tables – on FT it is important to work out the opponents because they differ so much in style and quality. I wasn’t able to do this and so made moves against the wrong people, made a stupid drawing call etc etc and was battered down a stack and a half before I really tried to get my game together. I managed to settle down on five tables, and after 10 mins had some nice reads. I called a guy down in a $20 pot with my pocket 6s because he was playing 51% of hands with a massive aggression factor. I also check called some kid on two streets with my AK on a A,9,3 board – he called a small value bet on the river with 79o.

My break-even for the nigh hand, however, wasn’t to be. Another aggressive player raised my blind for the 10000th time, this time only to $1.50, I knew he would do it with any hand and decided that 98o would be a perfect hand to stack him with – flop 9h,8h,5x – well, that’s the flop I wanted to see, and he insta-bet pot at me made me happier, his range: nothing, top or second pair with practically any kicker, or any over pair – because of his fishy play I really did not put him on a set of two-pair because he’d be straight out, so I raise him 3 times his bet – he immediately comes over the top, I think and push and he insta-calls with AA. Turn was a 2h (that increases him from 29% to about 35% and the river was a 2. grrrrrrrrrr.

Gotta do a bit of evaluation of my play. That hand I was 70% to win when the cash went in and he lucked out as they often do. What I think was +ev was me getting straight off the tables as soon as that hand was done, if I get the majority of my money in behind I can play on well, but when I get it in ahead and loose I can’t play another hand (in this case I folded AJs on the button to avoid playing it). The thing was, as with my loosing nights prior to re-evaluating my game, I lost $50 through bad luck, and $50 through playing poor poker. I was tilted by the changing tables etc, so I think in future I’m going to get some tables up and sit out for a round to get a good idea of how the table is playing, and also whether it’s going to break up or not. Also, I’m going to start playing a bit of Party Poker, I don’t have much of a roll on PTY but I can afford two tables I think.

Anyways, bit of stats: I’ve made $220 since I changed my game, this is just under $15 an hour. I want to get my profits up to $20 an hour (just over double min wage). $20 an hour is $4 a table which is 8bbs an hour – I know this seems like a fair bit, but I’m playing 6-max and the standard is very much beatable; I just have to overcome myself.
This was a long update with very little said about hands – but I have to say the only hands that have really required any thought have all been fairly small. If I make a bluff and get called on the flop – the hand is over for me – unless the pot is still small in comparison to our effective stacks – so really, not too much skill is required in the big pots. People are still stacking off to me when they have an over-pair against my set and I’m not gonna fill my blog with stories of those pots. I really have never got a stack in behind when it’s not either a cooler or I’m priced in. But I’m gonna try and find a few interesting things to say in next Monday’s update.