Booted when down

Had a very frustrating night last night.I was doing well at $2nl when I get AK.I call an $8 raise and the flop comes A 10 6 rainbow.I check,villan bets $10 and I raise it to $40 which he calls.Turn is 9 and this time when I bet $60 I get raised to $80 which I call.
I checked the river ( Q ) feeling I must be behind to trips or 2 pair and have to make a crying $20 call.The villan was obviously worried too as $20 into a pot that size was nothing.He won with A9.
I should probably have realised I was behind when he raised on the turn but I didn't see him raising preflop and calling my post flop check raise with A9.

Down but not out and despite that loss I was still ready to do battle when 10 hands later I noticed one of the other players taking his time but not getting a "hurry up" message.I'm sitting in the BB with Q10 and I wait and wait before realising that the Poker Gods have been reading my blog and decided that if I can't manage my bankroll they would and my broadband connection was to use the technical engineering term....fucked.

I did all the disconnecting/reconnecting stuff but no joy.This was bad.Whats an Acorn to do without Online poker? Mrs A was already asleep and even Nacho was giving it big zzzzzz's so I did the next best thing to playing and watched Internet poker on the tv.

Up today ready for the first game of the season at 3pm.I switch on the tv at 1.30pm and Ibrox is looking suprisingly busy for an hour and a half before kick off. Finish getting ready and at 2pm just before leaving I flick the tv on again and the League Flag is being unfurled.It was a 2pm kick off not 3pm.Arghhhhh! Quickly race to Ibrox and I'm in my seat just before half time.3 -0 to the Champions V Livingston.Top of the league already after one game.I heard the Motherwell fans taunting the celt*c fans yesterday singing "Can we play you every week" and "Strachan must stay".ho ho .

Luckily I take my adsl being down very well indeed and don't rush round at all after the game trying to get a dial up disc just in case I can't get the broadband working.

I arrive home with 2 such discs but amazingly my connection has been restored.

Now what is the question.The roll is at $953 and while I love $2nl under 5 buyins does not make for optimal game play or is anywhere near enough to deal with the variance that comes playing NL.Same for $1nl despite being $713 up over 7k hands. Not keen on .50nl so looks like I'll need to head back to .25nl for the rest of eternity or until the BR can stand a move up.

I may try the tourney route.My record excluding freerolls is played 160 .won 44.Net result +$393. I love playing tourneys.Much more fun than most cash games but playing them and nothing else would be a step into the unknown and I don't know if my bankroll would appreciate that.

Added another couple of new blogs to my links.Please check 'em out and say hello.

Ok while the connections still holding up I'm gonna hit the tables....

No Limits

Played for 5 hrs 16 minutes last night for a $64 profit but it was one helluva night at the tables.I love No limit holdem.What a game.Not many other games can put you through such a rollcoaster of emotion (when my icy demeanor allows of course ).

Started at .25nl and took $5 with the Hammer when my 72soooted made a flush on the river."Best damn hand in poker"prompted a bitter response which was nice.lol.

Lost a buy in ( $25) when all in with QQ v KK and AK.

Moved up to $1nl and played a hand that took poker strategy to a whole new level.Sadly that level was lower than a snakes belly and it doesn't make for pleasant reading....Dealt Ah Jc.I limp in and call a $4 raise with one other caller.

Flop is Jd 8s 5d and the other caller bets $5.I raise to $10 for information and feeling I could be ahead.The preflop raiser folds.

The OC reraises me $10 and I take another sip of my cola.Its obvious he has an overpair or has made trips.The fact he didn't reraise though preflop zips through my mind and then it happens.I look through my pc into his soul and its suddenly clear.He's on a flush draw and is semi bluffing.

The turn is the 8d and he bets out $12.

Another sip of cola and I call. I have no idea why I did that or why when he bet $15 after a 10s on the river I reraised him all in for $59 more.Felt like a bold move at the time....Damn that "Do it like Devilfish" show I watched...

My only logic was that I was trying to represent the flush or trip 8's myself and hoping to force him to fold.He asked "made the flush?",waited till the clock ran down.....and called with QQ and my cash slid over the virtual felt to him in an flash."Nice call sir" I certainly didn't say as I left the table faster than the Roadrunner.Beeeep Beeeeeeep.....

Lost $40 to quad 7's at the next table but I was ahead when I put my money in with QQ ( v 77) so I didn't feel too bad.Well maybe a tiny bit.

Down another $23 when I got rivered again. Exited all tables and had a long hard think about my game.Variance is a bitch and I reckoned that apart from my AJ nightmare I'd actually played as well as I could.My bankroll was sitting at $794 from $1004.Not good.

Took a deep breath,double checked myself for any signs of tilt and started at a new $1 table.

Off to a good start winning $24 with AQ v KQ with a Q on the board.$18 more when I made a full house with KJ.

Dealt AKs for the 62nd time in 27k hands and made it pay when I made a pair of Kings v Queens.$20 this time.

By now I knew my game was good and opened a $2 nl table aswell and bought in for the max $200.

4th hand in I'm dealt KK and call a $10 raise from late position.

Flop comes 7h 9s 9c and the raiser checks to me.I bet $15 which he calls.

Turn is Qd and this time he check raises me to $70 when I bet $35. No going back now.I reraise for another $70 which he calls.

River is a 10d and he checks.

I thought I probably I was still ahead but after the night I'd had I expected him to have KJ and not AQ as I'd suspected so I checked too and took down a $260 pot when he showed Q10 and my 2 pairs were good.

That win helped my confidence and I ended up sitting at the table as the big stack with $440.I still had $130 at the $1 I was also playing and while I know having half your bankroll at the tables isn't good money management it certainly gets the heart pumping.

Nothing too scary either at $2nl.Obviously I have nowhere near the bankroll required( a reoccuring theme I'm noticing in this blog) but the standard seems fairly similar to $1nl.I look forward to playing there again in the not too distant future.Give me a couple of hours.....

Bankroll at $1069.Went to bed buzzing at 3.15am.Didn't sleep for a while running over hands in my head.

The new football season started today.Rangers unfurl the League Championship Flag tomorrow at Ibrox and I'm looking forward to that. celt*c were back at Motherwell where they threw away their chance to win the league on the last day of the season with 2 mins to go.It was on tv and they led 3-1 at halftime before 'Well made it 3-2 and Scot McDonald equalised.It finished 4-4. Two dropped points on the first day and Strachans team lose 9 goals in 2 games.
I'm luvin' it.

My sis is still recovering well from her op.She's just bought a new house in a lovely village not far from me with her fiancee.They get married next May and its going to be some occasion.
She deserves happiness after what shes been through.

My old folks are over in Paris for a long weekend. A gift from friends of theirs for their 60th's which are both in December.


Just qualified for Pokerrooms PLayer points tourney at 6pm.Basically a $6 freeroll for frequent players and I'm frequently frequent.

Off out to walk Nacho and get some fresh air.Step A is away at numpties for the weekend and Mrs A is reading the new Carl Hiaasen trilogy book I bought her.Having a nice chilled out weekend.
Apart from going to war at the tables and roaring on my team tomorrow that is....

The Power of PT

Warning: This post contains a bad beat, a hand history and an exclamation mark!

Played for 1 1/2 hours last night after spending most of the evening reading blogs/forums etc.
Stuck to .25nl and hadn't seen too many good hands when this happened.....

I get 10 s 10 c in mid position.I've been playing a tight game ( not that I'd expect anyone at .25nl to notice) and there was one limper when it came to me. I raised to $1.50 and 2 players called.We saw a flop of Jd 10d 3s.

With a possible flush and straight out there it was time to take it down.As I was considering the size of my bet Mr Fish bet $3 and the other player folded.I considered he could have J 10 or possibly be semi bluffing with a straight or flush draw and there was no way I was going to allow him to do that cheaply.I reraised him to $10 which he called.The turn was Ac and he checks.I'm sure my trip 10's are good and bet $13.25 putting myself all in and forcing him all in if he calls.

He calls and in an instant the river card comes Qs and he takes the pot showing Kh 10S making an A high straight. "lol nh" I say in the chat.

Thankfully I was able to laugh at this and realise that its guys like Mr Fish who have got my bankroll where it is.I read a quote that said that most professional players would struggle at low limit because players gamble so much and don't play in a logical readable fashion and to some extent this is true.I think if I replayed that hand a million times I'd never put Mr Fish on K10 o/s.This is partly why I like $1nl so much.Obviously its still a very low limit but the play is more "by the book" and predictable.

Although I'm keen to play $1 nl and above I think part of the reason I was able to laugh off a beat like that was because I'm playing well within my bankroll at .25nl. If I'd lost a $100 buy in at $1nl it may not have been so easy to get over.

I reckon I am though because I played on for another 40 mins and although I never pulled it back I didn't lose any more either and felt like I was still on my A game.If I blow my roll tonight I'll be back to edit this post....


Ok I'm going to break my hand history rule but just a quickie to show the power of Pokertracker.I found the stats on my best ever hammer hand in seconds and can even replay it on the game simulator.

I've played 27403 hands.72 o/s 224 times.72s 86 times.AA 126.AKs 60,AK 251,KK 127. I've seen Q10 the most at 282 times! 98soooted is number 6 in my top ten net money winners at $208 yet 98 o/s is my biggest losing hand at $278.Am I right in assuming that my average number should be aprox 162? 24403/169?

Followed some great links from comments left by Will Wonka and GaryC25.There's a lot of good quality poker material out there and the Pokertracker info is just what I need.Thanks again guys.


Ok its HAMMER TIME!!



Texas Hold'em $1-$2 NL (real money), hand #862,671,225Table Greenwich, 1 May 2005 4:30 AM ET
Seat 2: joj_the_dogSeat 3: LeonzeslayerSeat 4: mtsherman02Seat 5: ted bundySeat 9: Zagga [ 7D,2S ]

ANTES/BLINDSZagga posts blind ($0.50), joj_the_dog posts blind ($1).

PRE-FLOPLeonzeslayer calls $1, mtsherman02 folds, ted bundy folds, Zagga calls $0.50, joj_the_dog checks.

FLOP [board cards 5C,3H,4H ]Zagga checks, joj_the_dog checks, Leonzeslayer bets $6, Zagga calls $6, joj_the_dog folds.

TURN [board cards 5C,3H,4H,6C ]

Zagga checks, Leonzeslayer bets $7, Zagga bets $20, Leonzeslayer calls $13.

RIVER [board cards 5C,3H,4H,6C,10H ]Zagga bets $50, Leonzeslayer folds.

SHOWDOWNZagga wins $103.


SUMMARYDealer: ted bundyPot: $105 Rake: $2joj_the_dog loses $1Leonzeslayer loses $27mtsherman02 loses $0ted bundy loses $0Zagga bets $77, collects $103, net $26

Limit V No Limit

No poker played last night but poker content after the football stuff.

I did get to see Rangers bitter rivals lose 5-0 in a qualifier for the Champions League against a team of Slovakian nobodies.Sweet. That was their biggest ever European defeat and Gordon Strachans first game in charge. "Out of Europe in July,You're out of Europe in July".
They even mentioned the guy that managed the Texas Rangers for just 1 game in '77 and wondered if Strachan would last longer! Us Bluenoses will be starting our "Strachan must stay"
campaign shortly....

I read http://www.gcox25.blogspot.com/ and discovered that The Texas Rangers play in Red,White and Blue too.Fine colours Mr Cox."We love the Rangers we do,Oh Rangers we love you".

Enjoyed the rest of my night too.Mark and Bucky came up for a night on the Play Station and I tried not to mention the football score to Mark more than 30 or 40 times per hour :-)

Ok back to the poker and reading about some of Juices experiences ( http://pokerandglory.blogspot.com/) playing limit poker I thought I'd write about why I prefer No Limit.

I've tried limit a few times and I don't like it much.NL gives you much more information to go on and allows a hand to be properly protected allowing you to really punish the fish.I found my experience of limit holdem to be a frustrating one.Playing NL you should always raise by the same amount preflop but so many players will give clues to their hand by raising a lot more with AA,KK and less with the other premuim hands that it makes them easy to read.

You don't get 6 or 7 callers along for the ride when you raise enough in NL.The trick is to get the balance right between building the pot and allowing too many players in to outdraw you.
The best hand always seems to win at Limit but at No limit you can represent having hit your flop and bet out and take it down with nothing.( always best to leave yourself outs though).Sometimes I like to give players the odds to draw after the flop then tempt them into making mistakes if it misses by raising big on the turn.

Its also easier to make more money from other players on tilt with NL.Of course there are still nights when fish will call large raises with weak hands and get lucky on the flop and obviously the variance will be much higher at NL but overall if your going to play Nofoldem Holdem it must be easier to make money at NL.

The main reason NL is better than Limit though is the buzz of winning a big pot.Now I realise that we're all supposed leave our emotions behind when playing poker but very little beats that feeling you get when you win a big pot and see several opponents sitting out because you've taken all their money.( see June 23rd "Winning Night" post for my best example.) Its real heart thumping stuff to put all your money in with the best hand and hope it holds up and its even worse/better when your bluffing.

I never "tap the aquarium" and although its bad for the bankroll its also a great feeling when the whole table leaves because they can't handle your play.Maybe one day I can make that happen at $1 nl and not just .25.

At .25nl there are so many players with shortstacks just looking for action that a patient player should make money most of the time.At Pokerroom many 10 seat .25nl tables have % flop seen in the 50's!! $1nl is more realistic with flop % seen usually nearer 30% and much more respect for raises and bets and much bigger pots.

Just noticed that when I looked at my June posts that my profile/archive/ links are in the right place but currently they are still on holiday at the bottom right hand side of the page.
Hopefully blogspot will reply to my email soon and I can sort it.

Ok back to grinning madly at all my celt*c supporting workmates.............

Year to date progress

Spent most of last night studying instead of playing.Sounds very intellectual but just meant reading a load of poker forums and delving into my Pokertracker to try and learn more about my game.( whilst listening to Rangers bt St Mirren 1-0 in the last pre-season friendly)

I checked out the villan from the "got my number" post to see if I could get any clues about the hands he beat me in.Got stats for 162 hands on him and he raised 3 times pf and is a tight passive player.If thats the case then I'm now fairly sure he had the flush when he bet out $40 on
the river.He probably thought I would call after I called his full house with my trip Aces.

I've got 10000 hands at 5 max so stats such as vp$IP are probably a bit high but here is a breakdown of my play since January when I bought Pokertracker and started the long learning process.Almost all single table play but the stats will include some 2 tabling at .25nl.

Month/ Hours/ Hands/ Net profit or loss

Jan 30 2134 + $199

Feb 77 5147 - $265

Mar 40 3180 + $81

Apr 61 6014 -$74

May 54 3904 + $249

June 73 4518 +$224

July 38 2489 +$291


Total 373 27,386 + $705

Monthly ave = 53 hours BB/hr = 3.13 BB/100 = 4.27 vp$ip 38.46% Went to showdown = 24% Pf raise 6.5%

$1800 paid in rake. Total hands = 27,386


Its blatantly obvious that learning proper emotional control is a major key to developing my game.Februarys -$265 came from a nasty experience at $5-$10 nl whilst on tilt and I can see other instances where the red mist has descended.

I'd love to give some stunning insights into my game but I'm still very much a newbie when it comes to making the most of my Pokertracker stats.I'll read more of the Pokertracker forum and I'm sure I've heard somewhere of an analysis guide that may help.

I 'll cover my tourney stats in another post.Pokerrooms session browser gives me details of every tourney I've played so please remain on the edge of your seats for that.....



Meanwhile I played 1/2 hour of $1nl and left the table a whopping $2 up.Joined a .50nl 5 max table and lost $20 in 15 mins when my A high lost to a rivered Q.Frustrating because I knew he had nothing before the river and my A was good.It was strange adjusting to 5 max where aggression rules and if theres 3 players in and its checked to you it should be a criminal offence not to bet.

Mrs A working again tonight and Mark is coming up for his weekly visit.Hopefully I'll get some poker in aswell but the only flop tonight may be me on the trampoline......

Hammered

A funny old night at the tables.

Stuck to .25nl and after a few orbits at my first table I finally pick up 72 soooooted.A raise then a reraise before me.I laughed in the face of these obvious fish making a move on my hammer hand and just called waiting like a coiled spring to make my move.
Flop brings Q J 7 rainbow my heart is thumping as my opponent bets out into my bottom pair.
I've read all the hammer stories and I know a 7 is coming on the turn but as my foolish opponent doesn't I simply call his bet and laugh aloud when the poker gods decide to torment the poor villan further by producing a 4 on the turn knowing he will think his hand is still good against the mighty morphin' 72 I hold.
The river is a blank and the villan bets out again.I quickly check the rules.Is there a 6th community card for situations like this? Apparently not so I do the obvious thing and reraise with my nut hand.
No need to say anymore but I may have to rename 72 The Chainsaw because it seems to slice clean through my stack every time....

Stayed at the same table hoping to get some action from people who may have thought perhaps I'd made a wee error or two with my hammer hand.
A new fish joined and started raising wildly in almost all his hands.He lost a buy in then rebought and I'm thinking that its just a matter of time before he blows it all when I get AA and only call a raise to $1 with the maniac fish still to play.He called too and I raise the original raiser $8 when he bets a weak $1 after a flop of Q J 4 rainbow.The maniac goes all in with K6 and hits 6 on the turn and river to crack my Aces.

He took me for another buy in when he sucked out again with another poor hand and just for a fleeting moment I wonder if he's a genius and I'm the fish.A quick check of the hand histories and my ego and I decide he is a huge fish and with patience he'll give it all back.
By this time I was down $65 and the trickle began.He had over $100 and slowly lost it all over the next hour.I took back $20 with a full house and gradually took his money back via the other players.He'd suckout on them,they'd play badly and tilt and I'd get their money.Still finished down $25 but I was two tabling near the end of the night and running well and after suffering a couple of suckouts I didn't feel too bad about my overall play.

Bankroll at $1060 and I'm going to 2 table the .25nl again tonight.

I started a new blog to check the template details and made a couple of adjustments to this one.I then went back to check on the new one and the profile/links and archive had moved to the bottom right of the page.Arghhhhh.I'll just need to wait for those nice folks at Blogspot to reply to my email and will hopefully be able to sort it then.

Finally a tale from the Glasgow Herald diary column which made me smile....

Brief encounter:
A CHAP was standing in the queue at the supermarket when the attractive woman in front of him smiled and then said: "Oh, sorry, I thought you were the father of one of my children," before she paid and left. He began to worry, as he remembered an encounter some years before, so he hurried after her and asked: "Look, you weren't the girl I met at that student party in Byres Road where we had sex on top of the coats before I threw up?""No," she replied. "I think your son's in my school class".

Got my number?

Started off by making $12.75 in 16 minutes at .25nl and due to my hangover thats where I intended staying.I've not played a sng for a while though so decided to play a 5 max Pokerroom $5.50 turbo Sng. Came back from nearly a chip and a chair to win that one for $12 net.

So with all going well I decided to go back home to $1 nl.

I played two interesting hands against the same opponent and I'm still wondering if he had the flush in the second or wether he just had my number.( had the better of me).

Ok so the Villan raises $3 and with one caller I call too from late position with Ah 10h.
Flop comes Jc 3s Ad and the raiser bets $6 and I'm the only caller.I'm hoping its a pp like QQ or KK I'm up against but I'm willing to fold to a big bet on the next street just in case he's got AK or AQ.

Turn comes an As and he checks to me and I'm starting to think I'm right about QQ or KK and he's worried I have the A .I bet $8 and he calls.River is 7c and he bets out $25.

Now I'm thinking he had 77 but I couldn't persuade myself my trips were beaten by a full house and called.He had JJ and took it down. The A on the turn was the perfect card for him but I thought he played it well.

About 15 hands later we lock horns again.This time I get 7c6c in early postion and the same villan is in the BB. I limp in and the flop comes 5c 3d Jd.

Nothing to get excited about and four of us check to the turn which is 4d. Now the villan bets out $3 and as I've made a 7 high straight I reraise to $8 which he reraises to $10.The river is As and he bets out $40.Would you call?

He knows the last time he had the best hand I called his $25 bet so I've 30 seconds to decide if he's holding 2 diamonds or not. 26 and A2 were hands I could beat and hands he could have or he could have had nothing and been playing on my fear of calling after the last time but I'm sure he had something and as my best guess was 2 diamonds I decided reluctantly to fold.

I should add I didn't have too much information on him other than he seemed fairly tight and hadn't made any other big bets since the last time he took my money.

I won back $31.25 when my 33 made a set on the flop and slow played it a bit until the river when I bet $15 into a $30 pot and was called.

I'm still working on the size of my river bets when I think I'm ahead.At .25nl you could go all in and usually get called.$1 nl needs a bit more of a subtle touch.Unless I'm the caller of course...
If I bet too much and the villan folds then I may aswell have checked so while I still like to "bet big or go home" I've now realised that I've got to tailor the bet size to the situation more often.
I'll probably still overbet rather than underbet though because if we both have a monster but mines bigger with sharper teeth then I want to make as much as I can. Thats possibly why my standard deviation is so high.

Its also another reason for my to try and stick to .25nl for a while yet.I may 2 table this option.I feel with a bankroll of $1085 this is for the best as I only need a couple of bad sessions at $1nl to really knock me back.Sure I'd love to be the kind of poker whizzkid who zaps through the levels in record time tearing them up but I've got to remember this time last year I was still using play money.

I may play more Sng's. Been reading Will Wonkas progress playing only sng's and I'm inspired to try a few at $20 -$50 rather than just $5 or $10.I'll need to get my bankroll up a bit first though.
So many games at so many levels...so little bankroll......

Mark just called to make it Wed night instead of tonight and the wee one is still at numpties.Mrs A works on Mon and Wed night so time to take advantage and get the ironing done in peace.

Or perhaps I'll just roll one up and hit the tables.Creased is the new crinkled...

Anti Tilt Quote

Just a short one today.Firelotus ( poster on cardplayer.com forum) kindly gave me permission to use a quote of his.I wrote the other day about how my poker confidence had taken a battering after only a few bad tilting sessions.Reading the words Firelotus wrote finally snapped me out of
my tilt when I "Let it go".

"There is this weird psychology in poker that when you're on a losing streak, you feel you really were never as good as you thought you were and that you will never win again. Let it go. IF you need a break, take it. Only you know. In any case, be prepared to come back fresh."

Simple stuff really but just the trigger I needed to get my game back on track.

Played 10 hands at .25nl before going out last night.$6 profit.

Had a great night visiting Wee Stu and Fiona and seeing their 12 week old baby Kate who really is a wee cracker.Got back about 3.30am and as I'd had a few beers I hit the play money tables for 1/2 hour before crashing out.Can't remember much about it other than going all in on a bluff with 72 ( soooted) and showing it when the villan folded.Amused me anyway.

I've written to blogspot support because I've no idea why my profile/links/archive have decided they would rather reside at the bottom right hand side of my blog.I've probably screwed up when adding links.I've added a couple more links too.( if you can find them). http://will-wonka.blogspot.com/ and Thepokerchronicles.com.
Both great blogs and worth a look.

I see the Italian football authorities read yesterdays post (yeah sure) and have reversed the decision not to allow Inter Milan to travel to the UK for a pre-season tour.Good to see commonsense prevail.

Just finished my Sunday roast dinner.Time to pay a couple of bills,walk the dog and hit the tables...

Got my Mojo Back

Logged into 888.com for the final and there were 360 players registered.WTF??? I called Support and asked why there were so many entrants.There were heats on Wed,Thus and Fri the week before last and the top 30 qualified.According to support they also ran heats all last week.That wasn't advertised in the original newspaper pullout.I expected 150 max.That combined with the crap software didn't have me in the best of moods when I sat down to play.

In the qualifier the other players were awful.I'm obviously no expert but people were pushing all in with 95 o/s and other such quality hands.Anyway 3rd hand in and with 3 callers its round to me and I've got JJ. I bet out 350 in chips ( from 1000) hoping to either take the pot or get myself heads up v a hand I dominate like AQ,AJ,A10.I was put all in by one of the callers and when I called I was half right about his hand.He did have an A but sadly for me he also had another and with no help from the board out I went.

Read some poker forums and in particular a brilliant posting about tilt.I've pm'd the guy to ask if I can use his quote in my blog as along with all the encouragement from fellow bloggers the posters words really helped me get back to my A game.

I moved back down to $.25nl and I'm glad I did as there must have been a fish convention on at Pokerrooms lowest nl tables last night. I get KK and raise to $1.85 and get one caller.Flop of 3 5 6 rainbow and I bet $3 and get reraised all in for another $18. trips? 47? I call and after blanks on the turn and river my KK beats his 88.

I get AA and raise $3 and I'm raised $9 by a player who is all in.I then reraise the other caller and put him all in for another $12 and my rockets stand up for a $22 net profit.

I get 88 and limp in.Flop of 3h Ah 8c. Villan bets out $1, I raise to $5 and he calls.Turn is 9d and I bet out $15 and he calls.10d on the river no help and I take another one down.

Moved up to $1nl and won $47 in total.No more playing A6 out of position and back to my usual policy of lethal limping then ramming and jamming on the flop if I hit or folding if I don't.Only chasing draws with the right odds and betting for value if I've enough outs to be favourite.I've cut out the bluffs too apart from the odd steal attempt.One very noticeable tilt factor I've noticed in myself is the ability to make silly large bluff bets that are usually called. A smaller,controlled bluff bet that's called down at the beginning of a session can be quite welcome to set up future plays but overall at the lowest levels theres simply no need to bluff too often in ring games.

$171 profit from 199 hands last night and the bankroll sitting at $1096. Had a really enjoyable night and got a bit of my poker confidence back.Table selection was all important last night as always.I looked for high flop seen/big ave pot at .25nl as that usually means the fish are throwing their money away.I told one guy "unlucky" after he complained that I only beat him because I had a higher kicker.I he thinks J4 is a good hand I want to be at his table more often.

Very shortstacks at .25nl it seems just can't wait to see some action.They are not there to play a couple of hands an hour and gain a couple of dollars.They all want to double up right now and some of the hands people were going all in with were laughable.Maybe the mindset is that they are willing to pay say $8 for the sheer entertainment value of hoping their gutshot will hit and of course for the pay out the one time in ten that it does.

Overall a fine night and the new series of "Still Game" started well too."He who hingeth aboot,gets hee haw". If you hang about you get nothing.Could apply to slow playing our hand on a scary board.

Didn't go to the Rangers friendly game today.I hate friendly games.They are only really fitness exercises for the players and are very uncompetitive.Stuff paying $17 for that.Ended 0-0 with the German team Borrusia M'gladbach.

I've just seen news of 88 killed in bombings at the Eygptian red sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.Mrs A and I were there last November and it was one of our best ever holidays.The people were fantastically friendly and the scenery stunning.I'll never forget the slience when standing in the Sinia desert on one of the excursions or the incredible snorkelling at the blue hole in Dahab.We even sent a package of Scottish stuff to one of the waiters who we became friendly with.Sharm is just developing as a resort and it will be a shame if these bombings stop all that.Who do these extremists think they are hurting? Most of the casualties will be Muslim hotel workers and its the Eygptian economy that will suffer if tourists stay away.

We must stand strong in the face of all this.We've already booked Gran Canaria for Sept but we nearly went back to Sharm and personally I would definitely still go back and hopefully we will in the next year or two.

I can't believe the moral cowardice of Italian football team Inter Milan who have cancelled their tour of England after the London bombings.Utterly pathetic.

Going out to visit friends tonight so no poker.I'll probably post again on Monday.

A Giant leap

Had good fun last night on the new trampoline.Plenty of giant leaps.Only took 1/2hr to build and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.Its 13ft and looks like a UFO has landed in the garden.The wee one loves it though and thats the main thing.I quite enjoy using it too and when the wee one is away at numpties ( her dads) this weekend I'm going to thoroughly test it to make sure its up to standard.I'm looking forward to using it during breaks in my tourney final tonight.Should help get the blood flowing.I usually run up and down the stairs a couple of times.My poker cupboard is quite small and it can't be healthy to sit for hours staring at a small screen.

Didn't bother play Sng's last night but hit the .50nl tables instead where my bad run continued and ended up down $60.Decided to play $2nl and finally got my game together.I know moving up to chase when your stuck is not usually a good idea but I really tightened up my starting hand requirements and left after making $40 when my A 10 from the button hit 2 pairs.Lost $20 overall but I do feel much happier about my game.

I've been doing a lot of thinking ( thats what that grinding noise is) about my game and my small downswing and have come to the conlcusion that my poker confidence is quite fragile and only experience and the passing of time can help.I'd like to think I'm a winning player.Pokertracker says I am after 26000 hands and I've cashed out this year and never redeposited but I think until I've got 2 or 3 winning years behind me I'm never 100 % sure that I'm heading in the right direction.I know that even the best poker pros are still learning and adapting all the time and I don't ever expect to be the "complete" player but I think the confidence of knowing that I can be a consistent winner over 100,000 hands and a few years rather than 26k and 8 months would in itself help my game.

Not easy to forget about poker.Was in a training course when the trainer asked us what the 25% figure she had written on the board meant.Its too tight a game.Time to find a new table.
When she asked how to deal with "the next customer" when you've just had 3 or 4 screamers in a row I started thinking of bad beats and playing every hand correctly.The joys of being a Holdem addict.

Quiet night in with Mrs A ahead.Playing in the 888.com/The Sun final tonight.Would love to win or come second.There's a place in the UK Poker Open and a trip to Monte Carlo up for grabs.

At 10pm my favourite tv show "Still Game " is back for a new series and it was so popular in Scotland its being shown throughout the UK this time.Its about 2 old blokes called Jack and Victor and its very funny.

I'll hopefully still be in mid tourney battle but after the poker week I've had I'm not setting the timer on the video just yet....

A little tilt

Played for 45 mins last night and finished down $45 at $1nl.Stopped playing as I realised I was tilting.More of a subtle tilt than the Juices all out psycho tilt but tilt all the same.The kind of night where I call a small raise with Ax suited and have to fold to a flop bet.Next time I fold my AX suited and of course my flush hits.I need to keep remembering the continous shuffling of the virtual deck and that if I had called different cards would have fallen.

At least I recognised it and stopped playing.I need to forget where my bankroll was and concentrate on playing each hand correctly.Not getting much in the way of decent cards either but I'm not kidding myself thats the sole cause of my downward swing in the last few days.

I'm going to play a few sng's tonight to get back into the swing of tourney play before tomorrow nights 888.com final to qualify for the UK Poker Open.

Booked up 16 nights in Gran Canaria for Mrs A and me in September.We're going to the same hotel we went to 2 years ago just outside the fishing village of Mogan.Really looking forward to getting away and recharging the batteries.

Got my away game allocation through from Rangers.My season ticket gets me into all the home games but they have to ballot for away games because apart from our rivals no other ground in Scotland holds 50000.I was lucky and got a ticket for the game against them in November.I was there last year when we beat them at their place for the first time in 5 years and was hoarse for about a week afterwards.7500 of us and 50000 of them and we still out sing them every time."Stand up for the Champions!".

Well the back grass is cut and the trampoline ready to be assembled.Off to buy loads of soft drinks in for the invasion of the little people.I don't mind that but they'd better remember that it might be Step A's birthday present but I paid for it and I'm bigger than them and if I want a shot they'd better get in line....

Flushed away

Down $108 last night.I was trying very hard to play my best game.Can't complain about the cards although it was one of those nights where when I raised with AA and KK the table folded but when I raised the same amount with QQ I get a caller holding A6 who hits his two pair on the flop.Just got to keep remembering that its players like that who've helped get my bankroll where it is.

I almost always rebuy to the max if I lose over 20% of it.If you're going to play a patient tight game waiting for decent hands then you want paid off in full if they win.It also helps project a strong table image as nobody ever sees you with a shortstack and reloading after a loss shows you have confidence in your game too.

So I lost about $35 on the QQ hand and rebuy only to pick up 9d9s a couple of hands later.It had been raised $3 but only cost me $2 to call from the BB. Flop comes 3c Jc 9h. Theres $15 in the pot and I decide that theres no point being greedy and taking chances by checking so I bet the pot.The original pf raiser folded and I get a caller who I put on a flush draw.Turn is 6s and its decision time. I have $74 left and bet out $50.He thinks,calls and makes his flush when the Ac falls on the river.He acted first and put me all in for my last $24.

Now at this point I could easily have folded as it was the flush draw I put him on but the pot was $170 and at $24 to call I was getting 7-1 to call and if he'd suddenly raised because he had made his pair on the river then my hand was still good.He had Kc 10c which was quite ironic because I had called a similar $3 raise myself with Ks10s when I first joined the table then mentally slapped myself for still being a bit loose and possibly tilty.

I think I played the hand well apart from possibly not going all in on the turn.To be honest my reasoning at the time was that if the flush hit I would get out but with the odds I got for the call I was never going to fold and I should have realised that.

The other thing that went through my mind was that if he called my flop bet without getting the right pot odds then he would call an all in bet anyway and I'd save $24 by folding if the flush hit.I'm not usually a fan of making crying river calls just because of pot odds afterall if you're beaten you're beaten but 7-1 was just too tempting.
I didn't like his call on the flop and even with 2 extra outs over the flush I still didn't give him the odds to call on the turn.He had to call a $50 bet into a $95 pot.

I wasn't to know he had a gutshot aswell as the flush draw giving him 11 outs but it was still a loose call.8 Clubs to the flush and 3 Queens ( Qc already counted and 9c would have given me quads).

That might have been a good time to go to bed but I didn't actually feel too bad after the hand.That in itself worried me because indifference is the road to tilt.I'm always trying to gauge my mood to make sure I'm feeling as neutral as possible.I read Felicia's comment in http://pokerboss.blogspot.com about how emotion shouldn't come into poker and I couldn't agree more.Much easier said than done.

I tested the theory and jumped straight back into another $1nl game and won a few smallish pots and left $30 up which ( after I'd flicked my poker emotion switch on) felt good.

I'm enjoying $1nl and don't feel out of my depth at all but wether its my game/bad luck or a bit of both if my Bankroll goes below $900 then I'm going to bite the bullet and head back down to
.25nl or .50nl. It would probably be .25nl because I'm sure the best of the .25nl players have moved to .50nl and if I'm careful enough to select the right table the .25nl tables are far easier to make money on.

http://www.financialcharting.com/poker/blog/ ( The Edge) mentioned it being easier to step down if you've played at a higher level because of psychological factors and I think thats a good point.Whilst being careful it doesn't lead to complacency its easier to run over the table if you know that the most you can lose is a $25 buy in.Its even easier to make bets that take other players out of their comfort zone.No point in raising to $1 ( 4 * bb) at .25nl with AA. May aswell make it $2 or $3 as its so loose you'll get callers anyway.And if not then move to a better table.

Reading the above made me wonder what the heck I'm doing at $1nl with my bankroll but playing a bit scared at first when I moved up actually helped me tighten up my game.There are fish at $1nl but its easier to just camp and be patient and in the end if you're playing better starting hands than your opponents then you should win overall.

Not much else going on.Watched the Gers beat Ipswich 2-0 last night and this morning Step A's 13 foot trampoline arrived.She seems happy with it but I've got to blame the USA ( hey everyone else does) for her making her hands into a W shape then an M then back to W and telling me "Whatever Mcdonalds Worker" about 10 times a day.
I don't have the heart to admit that her making an L shape with her finger and thumb and shouting LOSER is really hurting after the last few nights at the tables.Has she been reading this blog?lol.

Anyway all that hand stuff is just so last year....

Bouncebackabilty

Had a slow start last night at the tables.Only played for 1/2hr as my friend Mark was up for our weekly go at blasting aliens on the Play station.
I sat down,tried to clear my mind of all cat thoughts and then hit the tables and played pussy poker for 10 mins...

I say that because I got QQ after about 5 hands and instead of raising the guy that bet $4 I called and when the flop came K 7 5 rags I folded to his $5 bet.Ok he could have had AK/KK but a) I should have reraised to see where I was b) I should probably have also reraised his $5 bet on flop.I'm all for great laydowns but he could easily have had a pp say 88 - JJ or AQ,AJ etc.Didn't help that I didn't have any idea of the villans betting style but possibly a missed chance.

Confidence is such a strange beast when it comes to poker.Too much and cocky play will see your bankroll vanish.Too little and you start playing pussy poker like I did above.Pussy poker is probably less dangerous but being too weak and passive is just a slower road to ruin.

Mark turns up and I switch on the ps2 and tell him I'll be leaving the poker as soon as I'm one postion off the BB.I always wait for the BB when I join a new table and I always leave ( unless doing a runner ) before my BB is due.Waiting before joining usually gives me full table orbit to watch the action ( or more likely roll a doob) as most players at $1nl tend to leave just before the BB hits them.

Anyway I get my last hand before the BB and its 33.Not very exciting but I love trips so much I will call most raises Preflop up to about 6 * BB. I know trips only hit aprox 1 in 8 but they are such a well disguised money winner even if I call 8 raises at $6 if I hit my set once I can usually hope for a larger pot than that.

On a need to know basis nobody needed to know that because I was allowed to limp in and 5 of us saw the flop of A 10 10.Not the ideal flop for 33 and with 5 players in I was ready to fold to any bet.Checked all the way round and a 4 on the turn.Ok someones going to take a stab at it this time.....check check check check again.River comes a lovely 3 and its checked round to me.I have a full house but I'm fairly sure nobody has anything so I bet out $5 hoping it would look like a steal and someone might call but all folded round to Mr Fishier than a fishy thing full of fish who reraised me all in for his last $60.

After the other night I'm thinking he's got A 10 or 44 but he could also quite easily have had just j 10 etc for trip 10's. Decided my hand was good and called.I was delighted to see the chips come my way and desparate to check the hand history to see what he had........ A9.What was he thinking? What kind of hand did he put me on? What kind of hand did he think I would call that bet with? Was he on tilt?

I don't know but I left the table $45 richer thanks to him which was very welcome after my downswing.

I've cut the hand histories out of the blog from now on.Hand stories maybe but no histories.Also please feel free to question and criticise any hand stories or any suggested strategies I post.When I started this blog I wasn't keen on posting any strategy ideas because quite frankly with 8 months real money experience it just didn't seem right.
I do still feel that to some extent but hey its my blog and if I want spout forth on what works for me then I will.Oh yes.

So watch out for a deeply intuitive piece ( or a load of guff) on river bets coming soon.....

Hopefully will get some poker played later tonight.Watching Ipswich V Rangers on RTv tonight at 7.45.Only a friendly but looking forward to seeing the new players in action again.

Watched a bit of Pokernight live late last night ( ch 226 on sky) which I love.They show internet poker and you get to see the hole cards.They had a great $2-$4 table on last night.The commentators mentioned a recent survey which shows 48% of internet players are female.Well I know my Mum loves playing with play money but 48% does seem quite high to me.No point to posting that stat.I just found it interesting.Ok starting to ramble even more than usual so I'll leave you with...

Another fine blogger added to my link list http://www.financialcharting.com/poker/blog/.

Big Downswing

My decent run of late had to end sometime I suppose and last night was an awful night at the tables.Bet big or go home is how I like to play and considering how quickly my bankroll has grown over the last month I reckon I was due a downswing. $263 to be exact.Bankroll now at $1072.

Played the first big hand I lost correctly I feel.At my usual $1 nl table when UTG raised to $4.I reraised to $6 with JJ to see where I was and was reraised back to $8 .His reraise made me rule out AK,AQ and lower PP's than mine and I called hoping to hit a set. Flop comes rag,rag and a golden J.I check to him fully expecting him to bet with his KK or AA and he doesn't let me down and pushes all in for a further $60 which I call in a flash.Of course the turn is an A and his trip A's take down my trip J's.

Ok thats poker and I had to work really hard at putting it behind me and staying on an even keel emotionally.Played a tight game and held it together well for a while but then decided that as I wasn't tilting I would move up to $2nl determined to play solid tight aggressive poker.Self delusion at its best.To fair to myself I didn't go wild at $2 nl in my first few hands.I did play a tight game but tilt can be very subtle as well as very obvious and when I looked back at the pot that cost me I was fuming with myself for playing it so badly.

Ok here goes.... I had AcJc and limped in to an unraised pot.This was only about my 6th hand so I had no reads on anyone. Flop comes Jh 7h Js. I check my set and its folded round to the villan who bets $7.I call thinking I was still well ahead and hoping he's got KJ.Turn is a Qd and I check to him again and call his $7 bet.River is a 10s and I finally bet out $20 hoping it looks like a bluff and hoping my slowplay has worked and I'm raised $90.

Alarm bells should have been ringing but with only 30 seconds to think I ruled out him holding AK for the straight due to no pf raise.Ruled out 89 as very unlikely. I had been thinking that he could have been bluff betting the flush draw as I was calling his bets but his large reraise on the river was no bluff.I had to think he thought I had missed my flush and was bluffing at it or I had A7 and that he was trying to punish me with his KJ. J10 and QJ crossed my mind too but I couldn't lay it down and felt like I'd been kicked in the nuts when he showed QJ to take down a big ( for me anyway) pot.

Why oh why did I not reraise his $7 bet on the flop?Why if I knew he wasn't bluffing didn't I give his river bet more respect? Greed is the simple and honest answer.I said before that I like to bet big on my made hands and make anyone drawing pay yet I let him decide how much he would pay to see his winning Q on the turn.

The other simple truth is of course that I should never have been at a $2nl table with my bankroll.Its nowhere near big enough to withstand the swings that come when I'm playing my A game let alone when I'm on my Z game.

Now comes the character test.Last time I lost over $200 in one night I contrived to repeat the dose the next night.I must not allow that to happen again.

I mentioned Pokertracker and how I've heard it can be used in real time at Party.I didn't think it could import hand histories until a session was over but now I've learned that aswell as my own reads ( radar in for repair just now) I can use PT at the table I'm at.I play 26 hands first then set PT to import recent hands from all players I've played over 25 hands with.Go to PT's gametime option and bingo I've got stats on all the players at my table.Now its only a snapshot as 25 hands is only 2 1/2 table orbits but any edge is useful.Players do come and go but if a few don't then after 100 hands I will repeat and PT will give some quite useful information.

Sadly good as it is PokerTracker doesn't declare in an electronic voice "You're playing like a monkey.Please switch off your pc immediately and do not return until the tilt monster has been slain".

I just hope it has.....

Saved by the ring

Played a couple of $10 sng's to start my night.I should have paid more attention to Sirfwalgman's advice on playing for 3rd then opening out your game.I still feel I was a little unlucky though when my 77 ran into 88 and I went out on the bubble.Jumped straight into another one and was determined to play a tight game early.2nd hand I get the magic Rockets.I raise $250 ( $1500 starting chips) and entice Mr JJ to go all in which I call instantly.J on the flop and out I go.

Moved to the ring games and started at .25nl hunting down shorthanded 10 seat tables with high flop seen/big pots.Made $20 there and had fun before moving up to .50nl where I more than doubled my buy in from $50 to $115.It was going well until one guy started out playing me and my stack shrunk to $80.The final straw was when I held 77 and when a flop of 3 3 6 rainbow was checked to me I bet $2.50 and he checkraised me to $5.I though he was stealing or had the 6 so I reraised him back to see where I was and he went all in for another $107.He was in the sb and could have had the 3 so I folded.He'd been running over the table and I decided that ego has no place in poker and left for a new table.Look for weak opponents not strong ones.

Moved to $1 nl and finished the night $43 up in the ring games and $20 down for my two failed sng attempts.Bankroll now sits at $1352 after my 15th winning session in a row.The last few have been close though and were losing sessions until fairly late on in them.Its a nice stat but the main thing is to play each hand in the right way and hopefully if I can do that more often than not I'll continue to play more winning than losing sessions.

Its a bank holiday weekend in Glasgow so I'm only working 5 hours tomorrow ( double time n half) and its a 12pm start so time to go read some blogs and play some Holdem...

Made the Final!

Qualified for the final of the 888.com/Sun newspaper competition next Friday by coming 22nd from 503.Top 30 qualify. 888.com is a skin of Pacific Poker and the software is dreadful.Poor interface but luckily very poor players too.£10k worth of prizes but I expect the field to be about 150 because they had to play 2 tourneys on Thus and Fri nights due to registration problems.Mrs A fancies the 2nd prize of the trip to Monte Carlo but a seat at the UK Poker Open would do me.

Not much of a tourney report.I just played a tight game and took the few chances that came my way to double up enough times to be sure of getting in the top 30.Won 65c too and took that to a limit table and turned it into....$2.26.Moved to an NL table and reached $8 before crashing.Still don't like the software.It doesn't show the pot size or the size of any bets until it comes to your turn.

Back to Pokerrooms $1 nl tables and made a tidy $68 for the night.A new player joined the table.He was in the BB and I called from late position with 2d3d. Flop came 6d4d3s and I reckoned I had so many outs I had to bet $3.He check raised me to $8 which I called and when the turn came 3c I called his $7 bet with my set and draws.I was worried he'd made his straight with a BB special 7 5 o/s but when the river came 5c I raised his $7 bet to $14 as it seemed a weak bet in what was a $27 pot by then.

I won and he started trashtalking about how could I call his check raise blah blah blah.His new friend to the left of him was agreeing and telling him how unlucky he was. I was thinking that maybe he had 66 or 44.Then I checked the hand history and discovered he played Q6 o/s.Told the table and he left before I had a chance to tell him I'd run it through cardplayer.com's odds calculator and I was 58% fav after the flop and 95% after the turn.I was wishing I'd raised more on the later streets but then surely anyone with his hand would have folded to a decent raise?
Maybe I broke my rule about tapping the aquarium but I had notes that said I'd played with him before and he was solid enough.

Lost $18 when I made top pair with A10 on a 10, 6, 4, 3, 4 rainbow board and was beaten by JJ.
Learned my lesson from my poorly played QQ laydown the other day.This time when the villan raised $3 pf I reraised to $7 to see where I was and was called which meant I was fairly sure I wasn't up against KK or AA.He'd been a bit loose so I only bet $6 on a flop of 7s 6s 10c hoping he would reraise with JJ or try and steal with AK or AQ.I bet $12 after 9c on the river and he called with k10 o/s for a nice wee pot.

Went out in the first hand of the Player points qualifier today.Raised $250 ( $1500 starting) and was reraised all in by AK who spiked a K on the river.
Left me free to watch Rangers beat Linfield comfortably 2-0 in a friendly.

Added another couple of quality blogs to my reading list.Please give them a visit and a link.
http://pokerboss.blogspot.com/ and http://pokerandglory.blogspot.com/.

Just posted this in Juices comments and its always handy if you don't already have your pot odds memorised.

Re pot odds: After the flop your number of outs * 2 = % of hitting on the turn aprox.5 outs = 10.7%.

If you miss on the turn its aprox the same chance of hitting on the river.

Easiest way on the flop to work out the combined chance of hitting your hand with both turn and river is simply your number of outs * 4 = %.

Flush draw of 9 outs would give you 36%.Close enough to the actual figure of 35% to use.

I hope Juice won't mind me quoting from his blog but I want to disagree with some advice he quoted :-) The rest of his post was sound advice and well worth reading.

"One good piece of advice i read last night was this: If you have the best hand pot odds dont apply to you. If you have the second best hand or are chasing a draw you need to calculate pot odds. Generally fold with 3 outs or less and proceed with 8 outs or more."

Nothing wrong with the last sentence but if you have the best hand you need to protect it and you have to make sure your not giving your opponents the chance/odds to outdraw you.If the advice had added "If your opponent is drawing dead" then that would make more sense to me.

Too often when I first started playing I was only thinking about how good my hand was and not enough about where my opponents were at in the hand.

Been thinking about my poker style at the moment and I think I need to raise more pf at $1nl.Pokertracker has my overall pf raise % at 6.19 but only 4.52% over 5222 hands at $1nl.
The Lethal Limper.I hope as I'm getting more and more comfortable at $1 nl I will start stealing more. Its much higher at 7.11% at .25nl.

I don't limp with the top pairs but do like to see a cheap flop and hit something before ramming and jamming it.I do like the fact that limping disguises your hand. Limping with AQ or even AK means winning a lot of pots from players who play Aces with low kickers when the A hits a flop.Of course I don't always limp with these hands especially on or near the button and its good to mix up your play a bit and not be too predictable.

I mentioned Pokertracker and I would hope I don't need to tell anyone just how vital this software is.( and no I'm not on commison). No online Holdem player should play without it.I've got stats on over 3000 players at Pokerroom and I believe at Partypoker it will even update in real time to let you know all your opponents styles.It also gives a real insight into your own weak and strong points.

I don't like programmes that actually try and advise you on how to play.Maybe useful as a guide but every table and player is unique and you need to tap into the your tables playing style.Following the rule about playing tight at a loose table and loose at a tight table may help and don't bluff too often at low limit or against bad players.

I watched a show called "Blue Heaven" a couple of years ago following the Youth players at Rangers. It was interesting that the coaches signed a player mainly on the basis that he travelled 90 miles from Dundee to Glasgow and back every day without complaint.He is a good footballer too but so are a lot of young boys.The point is that it was his attitude that won him his contract and I think attitude and temperment go a long way to making a good poker player.

I built my initial $100 ( Oct 31st deposit) to $700 late last year and blew it all.I redeposited in Jan and built it up again only to blow $400 in Feb. Cashed out $500 in April and started this blog with $471 at the end of May.Blew $400 in 2 days in June and have now built the bankroll up to $1322 so while I'm doing ok I'm well aware that while I feel my poker temperment is improving I've a long way to go before I can say I've banished tilt from my game completely.
I read somewhere that its better to back an even tempered average player than a tilt prone great player.

Ok I've rambled on long enough.Dinner then the tables await...

Pokerroom or Party?

Played in the 888.com tourney and finished 141st from 591.Going to have another go tonight as it was incredibly fishy.I pushed with 1010 and was called by K2 o/s ( hit his K) and on the last hand I pushed with AK and was called by the same big stacked player with 95( suited tho..).Of course he hit a 5 and knocked me out.Not complaining although I was tempted to say "good luck fishboy" on the way out.Again though that would only put a smile on the his fishy face so I resisted.I know if I suck out and get abuse I just say lol or "I had great implied odds" even if I didn't just to try and tilt them a bit.

Played a $10 sng back at Pokerroom after that and came 3rd for £10 net profit..I've not played a lot of $10 tourneys.Almost all $5 ones and I was amazed that 3 players went all in on the first hand after the flop until they all showed down sets at showdown.Saw 2 players with AA in the next hand go all in preflop and end up splitting a pot which is highly unusual too.I played fairly well but went out with a really fishy move when it was 3 handed and I decided my A6 o/s was worth a raise pf and worth betting when I hit bottom pair.The fishy part was not folding right there and then to a reraise and my excuse at the time of being pot commited was simply weak.

Came 2nd for a $2 net profit in a $5 5max turbo sng.I was unlucky in this one and finally lost heads up when my KJ lost to the villans J7 when the flop came rainbow 7 7 5.I lost 4 hands where I was the big favourite but it happens and I hope I come across Mr J7 again and the odds hold up this time.

Hit the $1 nl tables after that.Called from the SB on my second hand with 67 o/s and took down my first pot when the flop came Q 6 6 Rainbow.Great to make a good start for a change.

Now I joked about telling other players I had "implied odds" when I suck out but it got me thinking last night.Implied odds seem to me to be an excuse to make a loose call sometimes.I had an open-ended straight draw and the pot had $15 after a $6 raise.So its $6 to call and I reckon I was probably up against top pair at least.Folded round to me and I've got a 17% chance of making it on turn and 31.5% chance if I see the turn and river but using standard pot odds I'm not getting the right odds.I also considered that if he did only have top pair and I made my straight then he would probably realise what I was drawing to and fold to any decent bet of mine anyway.If he had trips and I missed on the turn I thought he would surely not give me any odds to draw to my straight on the river and of course the board could pair beating me too.
I folded and I think it was the right move but it was hard to resist the wee voice in my head telling me that it was worth calling as the pot size after the river bets would justify it.Maybe its the case that implied odds don't work aswell with only 2 players left in the pot.If there had been 3 0r 4 then I may well have chased it but that would have depended more on my position and general read on the others.

Maybe its just because I tend to make my money by getting other players to chase with no odds when I have a made hand.I sometimes give them the odds after the flop and then if no scare cards hit I raise it right up to take the pot on the turn hoping to either take it down or get a loose call from a chaser or someone who thinks I'm bluffing.

I'm a creature of habit and routine and I've always played at pokerroom.I like the interface,the note taking,the session browser and I have notes on quite a few players.Is there anyone out there who has played on Party and Pokerroom and could tell me if the competition is really much fishier at Party? Are there tables where over 40% are seeing the flop 10 handed at$1 nl? I keep reading what a fishfest Party is and I wonder if I'm missing out by not playing there.

Finally a wee quote I liked from the Glasgow Herald diary column:

FOR seven years, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have been US baseball's most consistently unsuccessful team. Their general manager, Chuck LaMar, remains an inspiration to all under-achieving sports organisations, however.
For as Chuck recently put it: "The only thing that keeps this organisation from being recognised as one of the finest in baseball is wins and losses at the major league level."

And if my Auntie had balls she'd be my Uncle......

$100 up and no poker played

My sisters birthday dinner was postponed because she wasn't feeling too good.She's feeling better now but I think the enormity of the 5 weeks from her cancer diagnosis to getting the all clear is just hitting home.
Spent most of the evening with Mrs A watching tv and the rest doing my "50" list.

I work in the centre of Glasgow and most lunchtimes me and a couple of boys go for a walk round the town.Passing the 4 star Raddison hotel I spotted a dropped clear plastic wallet and picked it up thinking it might be someones bus pass.It had a couple of bus tickets but no name and tucked in at back was a $100 note.Strange that I play for Dollars every night and then find a $100 note.Its worth about £56.Its going towards the 13ft trampoline I just ordered for Step A's birthday in August.

Last night after work I met my Dad at 6pm at the BBC studios.I love old pictures of Glasgow and East Kilbride.I've got a few pics of old Glasgow ( "Auld Glesga" to the locals) from 1901 up on the lounge wall.Anyway in 1925 some guy called Claude travelled from London to Glasgow ( 400 miles) and filmed his journey in colour and they were showing the footage last night for the first time since it was discovered.
It was amazing to see George Square ( http://www.gcal.ac.uk/international/georgesq.htm) in colour from 80 years ago.There was also film of families in the park and it was weird thinking that even most of the babies in the film have probably died by now.

Got home about 8.30 and Mark came up for another night of gaming about 9ish.I'm still tired from staying up to watch the Gers lose 1-0 in their friendly the other night.First pre-season game of the season and more about getting match fit than the result.Bed for 2.30am though.

Apologies for the lack of poker content.Back at the tables tonight.There's a freeroll promo being run by a newspaper to qualify for the UK Open (£1m prize money) on 888.com at 8pm so I'm going to give that a go.Trying to get my Mum to sign up too.

My only poker strategy thought for today is the thought that my pokerblog is actually helping my game.I've learned a lot from other blogs and forums but I think just knowing that I'm going to commit my results to this page for anyone to read helps me play my best game.Its not going to prevent downswings and bad luck and I can't promise it'll banish all tilting from my game but it seems to be helping so far.
Maybe thats easy to say after 10 winning sessions in a row and when I'm $100 up on a day when I haven't even played any poker.I guess time will tell on that one.

Right I've got important stuff to attend to now.I'm at Feb11th in http://www.tripjax.blogspot.com/ blog.....

50 Acornman facts

1) I'll be 33 next month.
2) I really am a Little acornman at 5ft 6".
3) Been with Mrs A since a Millenium party and I moved into her place in March last year.
4) She's very understanding about my poker.( she gets the tv remote)
5) I play in a cupboard under the stairs.
6) I have an Ace of Spades signed by Amarillo Slim which sits beside my pc for luck.
7) I may have to change my name to Janice as thats who the "good luck" message on my Ace of spades is made out to.My dad got it from a friend after being assured I wasn't going to sell it on Ebay.
7) I drive an Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 v6 which costs a fortune to run but I don't care.
8) I once answered "Coconuts" when asked "Where do raisins come from?" in a school quiz when I was twelve....( time was running out and I thought any answer was better than none!)
9) My dogs called Nacho after Rangers striker Nacho Novo who came to Rangers and scored 24 goals last season after turning our rivals down.
10) Theres only 2 teams in Glasgow.Rangers and Rangers reserves and I've loved them since I was very young and have season ticket ( along with 43,000 others) .I hate our rivals passionately and even buy my toilet paper in their colours.
11) My addictions are poker,weed,football and my family.( though not in that order!)
12)I've lived in East Kilbride just outside Glasgow for 10 years.
13) I'm not superstitious but I do always hit the board overhead when I leave the football after the Gers have won!
14) I'm trying to avoid too many exclamation marks in this blog!!!
15) I don't drink very often but Budweiser is my favourite beer.
16) I love Galaxy chocolate muffins and like my steak "medium"
17) I can wiggle my ears and flare my nostrils.
18) I love playing pool,snooker and darts.
19) I had a 100c ( hairdryer) motorbike 10 years ago which I loved but car is much safer.
20) The first blog I read was http://www.thepokerchronicles.com/ and the second was http://www.sirfwalgman.blogspot.com/. Totally different characters and blogs but both are great reads.Now also reading http://www.gcox25.blogspot.com/ and http://www.tripjax.blogspot.com/. All well worth a visit.
21) I have been running up and down 4 flights of stairs several times a day at work to try and make up for the fact that at work and home I spend a lot of time sat on my ass.( exclamation mark resisted).
22) Like Garyc I can juggle but Mrs A usually hides the fruitbowl and when we're at the supermarket she usually just hides in case I start at the fruit n veg section.
23) Despite working with one and playing poker on one I'm not very good with computers.Took me until this week to get links to work in my blog and I feel like a programming expert after doing it.
24) My most embarrassing moment happened when I lived myself.This big moth had been really annoying me so I finally decided my flat wasn't big enough for both of us and it had to be terminated. My own "Hasta La Vista Baby" moment came as I picked up a cooking pot from the top of my microwave and as I swung it violently over my head ( like a tennis serve) ready to bash lumps out of Mr Moth the cooking oil that Mrs A had filled it with came out all over my head and Linoleum floor causing me to lose my footing.I spent an uncomfortable time trying to wipe oil out of my eyes whilst trying to get a grip on the worksurface.All while the moth laughed and smirked from close by.
25) My fav films are the Terminator series,Shawshank,The Wall and Goodfellas.
26) I have a cup of tea every morning and drink pints of water when I play poker.
27) I'm a bad timekeeper and usually run late.
28) I'm more of a nighthawk than a morning person.I would sleep till noon very day if I could.
29) I'm not going bald at the back and I'm not in denial about it
30) My haircuts seem to be taking less time these days but I reckon my barber has just upped his game.( maybe he read The Theory of Haircutting).
31) I'm not much of a cook but I make a great plate of mince and tatties.( potatoes).
32) I've always been a salesman until a couple of years ago.I don't mind dealing with complaints but holidays are welcome because it does get to be a bit of a grind hearing people shout and yell all day.
33) Musically I like everything from Pink Floyd to Dwight Yokham to Eminem to Beethoven.
34) I hate drivers who don't use indicators and "Baby on Board" signs.
35) I find most Modern Art laughable but I do like Salvador Dali's stuff and visited his museum when I was in Florida a few years back
36) I detest corporate bullshit like "we've ticked all the boxes","lets hit the gound running" etc.
37) I've taken ecstasy,acid and speed in the past and enjoyed them all.Only smoke weed these days though.Maybe I'll grow out of that one day too.lol.
38) I've been a volunteer for a local befriending project for 7 years and love it.Its only a once week commitment to take out a kid with learning/behavioural problems and its been very rewarding.Finished with the last kid a couple of months back and I'm taking a break for the summer.
39) I love all Christopher Brookmyres' books and I'm just finishing Carl Hiaasens' brilliant book "Skinny Dip" at the moment.I like all the Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby stuff too.
40) I left home at 17.
41) I have a babyface and could probaby still get a half fare on the trains if I tried.
42) I loved Bill Hicks and Billy Connollys early stuff.Roy "chubby" Brown is great and been to see Scottish comedian Jerry Sadowitz a few times.I heard Jerry was knocked unconscious at the Montreal Comedy festival when he opened with "Hello Moose f*ckers".If you like your comedy to be pc then he's not for you.Brilliant magician too.
43) Mrs A makes the best sandwiches in the world and I get 'em for lunch everyday.
44) Southpark not the Simpsons.Soprano's not Friends. The UK version of The Office.There's only one Ricky Gervais.Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, Blackadder,The Fast Show and Little Britain also twing my twang.
45) I don't eat at Mcdonalds or Burger King very often after reading "Fast Food Nation".I say "very often" because its not one of my most ridgidly adhered to principles...
46) I've only played live poker once and I can barely follow the blinds let alone look for tells or do chip tricks.I don't think anyone noticed my mouse finger clicking away when I wanted to raise.
47) I was in love with Madonna in my younger days and out of two,I'd still give her one.
48) I'm not religious.I have strong views on some individual issues but no leanings towards any party.
49) I love travelling and spending long lazy days on the beach with Mrs A( And wee Step A if she's with us).
50) Rangers won a world record 50th league title ( 51 and counting now) in May 03.

Phew.12.15am and I've not played any poker.arghhhhhh. Rangers are playing Dynamo Zagreb in Canada in a pre-season friendly in 15 mins.Its on RangersTV so I'm gonna have a late start tomorrow.I wonder if Jerry Sadowitz will be comentating...

Hot night

I was expecting to be posting about a small losing session.I was playing well enough but my $100 buy-in at £1nl was down to $79 and I was pretty card dead.I had been down to $62 after getting my AA cracked.At least I'm fairly sure it was cracked because I folded when the guy who had been calling my pot sized bets raised me all in on the river with 4 clubs on board.( I had red Aces).

Maybe its only because I've been running well recently but even as the flop was about to come instead of convincing myself that this pot belonged to me I concentrated on trying to spot any dangers ( 2d9c10c) and on thinking about what my opponent had when he called my flop and turn bet.This is NL and anyone reading this will be aware of my "bet big or go home" play so he must have been calling with some kind of draw. Maybe I shouldn't have checked on the river ( obvious weakness) but I wasn't throwing any more money at it.

So I'm at $79 and get 33 in mid position and UTG raises to $4.He's a regular and I have him marked as "solid".This was called by UTG + 2 before I called.
My plan is to hit my set or get out and I got lucky when the flop came jc 6c 3d.UTG raised to $10 and was called by UTG +2.
Now I'd been bitten the night before when I slow played A10 when I hit 2 pair on the flop and allowed someone to hit their straight so I decided that if UTG had a big PP then UTG + 2 either had a similar hand or a flush draw so I decided to take down the pot with my $35 re-raise.

UTG raised back and UTG +2 pushed all in and I quickly followed.Picked up a nice pot when the turn and river were blanks and my trips beat UTG's QQ and UTG +2's AA. If UTG +2 had reraised as he should have then I wouldn't have been in the pot.

Got on a bit of a rush and used the respect my bets were getting to steal a few more pots.
My style at $1 nl seems to be changing.I'm playing a lot less hands than I did at other levels.My flop seen is probably nearer 25% than my usual 40%.I feel like a bit of a rock but its working so far.Not very exciting just sitting around waiting for premium hands to play or for playable hands from good position to play but I'm enjoying watching my roll grow.

I also only play one table at a time at $1nl and although the pace can seem slow I can really take advantage of the ABC multi-tablers and get a much better idea of who the loose gooses are and I'm able to tailor my bets more depending on who I'm up against.A good example was my $12 raise with KK the other day.I would never have done that if I hadn't been fairly sure tiltboy would call.( which he did).

The bankroll stands at $1229.


Off out tonight to celebrate my sisters 30th.She's still recovering from her op but is doing well.

My anger over the London bombings has subsided a little since the other day and now I just feel real sadness for the victims and their families.There are police raids going on today in England and I just hope they catch the scum behind the outrage.

Still working on my "50" list.More tomorrow...

Great Laydown Pre-flop?

Made it 10 winning ring sessions in a row after playing and crashing ( thats crashing not cashing sadly) in 3 $5 sng's.9th,5th and 4th. Bankroll sits at $1088.

Played strange hand where I held AsJs and when 2 players checked to me on a flop of 8h Ks 6s I bet $3 with my flush draw and was check raised to $9.I called that and called his $13 on the turn ( 2c) as I thought that the $13 bet was not one he wanted called.When a harmless 7d came on the river he checked and so did I and my AsJs beat his 3s 4s for $22 net.

Now to my laydown.Possibly the hand where I won big with AA against QQ,JJ and 1010 was playing on my mind but I still think I made the right move.

I had QQ and UTG raised $2.This was called by one other but instead of reraising to see where I was I called and a player I hadn't seen play any pots in my short time at the table raised $12.
Folded round to me.My logic was that it had been raised and called in 1 place and then reraised by 12 * bb after I had called. At .25nl I would have probably called or reraised all in but when a player reraises like that I had to put him on AA or KK and if I'd called his $12 and the flop had come low cards I could have been throwing a lot of cash away on the remaining streets.

I always find it hard laying down a good hand and I was kicking myself for not reraising instead of just calling but luckily the session turned out ok in the end.

Very hot here today.28c is by far the hottest day of the year so I finished early ( 4pm) and came home to catch some sunshine.
Scotlands not a very warm country so we've got to make the best of it.When I was in Egypt last year the guide who took us on the desert tour told us that it got very cold at night. "Minus 2 or 3 ?" I asked. "12 or 13c" he replied. Oh how we laughed.( thats a summers day here!).

Ok its my sisters birthday tomorrow ( 30th!) so going up to my Mum and Dads for dinner.Just need to get her a present...

I really enjoyed http://www.gcox25.blogspot.com/ top 50 list and will give it a go soon if I can think of 50 interesting points to come up with! Watch this space...

short post

Finished the player points tourney in 340th place but it was a fairly half-hearted effort because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it.Mark came and picked us up about 9 ish and mentioned he had a trampoline on the way over to his place.Had a few beers n smokes with him and his Missus and then hit the trampoline.Its 13ft across and I reckon my legs are gonna be hurtin' tomorrow! Had a great night and got a taxi back about 3.30.

Mrs A went to bed and I hit the play money tables for the first time in months.Still got $1.8m in play chips and as I don't drink too often I wasn't going blow any real money.Had a good laugh with some of the fish but despite being determined to throw my play chips about like an idiot I still came out 30,000 play chips up.

Been outside in the sunshine for most of today reading Carl Hiaasens' "Skinny Dip" about a guy who tips his wife over the side of a cruise ship.Mrs A's read it too though...lol

Dog walked,dinner on and gonna hit the tables...

Bankroll Update

Currently sitting at $1068 which is a record high.Played for 55 mins on Thursday night for $5.95 profit at $.50nl.My games are never boring though and I lost $43.80 at one table and won $49.75 at another.

Made $28.60 over 167 hands at $1nl last night.Lost $40 at one table when my I was beaten by my fav hand 23 o/s. I had 62o/s in the BB and with no raises the flop came 2 2 10 rainbow.I only called a $2 flop bet and a $4 turn bet.Then as first to act I raised $20 on the river after a 3s fell only to lose to the boat.A quick "nh" and I was gone.I think the main reason I don't curse and swear at beats like that is because I don't want my opponents to think they've broken my spirit aswell as take my money.Am I really thinking "nh"? No chance.

As I mentioned before though I tend to tilt more when I feel I've played a hand badly and while I could have reraised before the river I didn't put him on a 2 so I left the tables and chilled out for 10 mins before coming back to win $70 at another table and ironically most of it came from a guy on tilt big time.Got pissed off with the idiot writing "reload reload reload" in the chat box though as that scared him off eventually.

I got him when I raised my KK to $12 pf.I knew he would call and when flop came 2h 3d 4h I bet out $25 and when he called I thought he had the A and was hoping he didn't have a 5 with it.9c on the turn and I went all in for $47 more and he raised all in for $67 which was crazy because after a 2d on the river he showed 6d Jc!!

Also played 2 $10 sng's.Bombed out in 9th in the first but won the second.Its nice seeing "Zagga finished in first place and wins $50" on the screen.I'll maybe try more $10 sngs.

Qualified today for Pokerrooms major player points tourney.Off to pick the wee ones bike up from the repair shop first and can't play for too long tonight as Mrs A and I are off to Mark n Laura's for a night of drinkin' and smokin'.

Ok the bike shop awaits...

We Will Never Surrender

The freedom loving countries of the world will never be defeated by terrorist scum.NEVER.

I was driving to work this morning when I heard the first reports of the London bombs on the radio.Sickening to think about the innocent lives lost and people hurt but if these terrorists think the people of the UK and the free world will be easily scared into submission they are very much mistaken.I'm a proud Scot and a proud Brit and I take both the Saltire and Union Flag to football games and there's an old football saying these bastards had better take note of.These Colours Don't Run.

This was going to be a completely different post.My bankroll finally broke through the $1k mark last night after a $60 winning session.A big moment for me in my short time online as a real money player but after todays events poker once again just doesn't seem so important.
Last time I felt anything like this ( after finding out about my wee sisters illness) I lost $400 in 2 days so I think I'll stick to $5 sng's tonight until my anger hopefully subsides a little.

Ok thats all for now.

Bluff pays off

I think the following bluff worked for a couple of reasons.One of my favourite odd hands is 23 suited or not.Pokertracker shows an $81 profit for 23suited.( had it 219 times) and a $69 loss for 23 o/s.( 86 times).
Sarah1986 had already raised preflop with a couple of poor starting hands. Q9 o/s was her last one so when she raised from the bb she could have had anything and I thought I would try and win it after the flop.I bet out $4 to represent hitting the A.Obviously I wasn't overjoyed when she called but when the kc came on the turn and she bet $5 it looked to me like she was trying to buy a free river card to hit her flush so when the river came a harmless 9s and she bet her $5 I decided it was a weak bet and raised $25 to push her off the pot.As soon as I bet it I was worried though because the worst time to bluff is on the river and I was sure it looked dodgy as the 9s couldn't have helped me much either.Luckily she gave me credit for something and folded.


Hand 1045475483, Started at 07/07/2005 12:58 AMTable 'Temuco': $1-$1 No Limit Texas Hold'em (Real Money)Seat 0: PokerMartian ($92.75 in chips) Seat 1: AlwaysRaise9 ($121.75 in chips) Seat 2: dow_nutz ($15.50 in chips) Seat 3: Mr.Mason ($47.50 in chips) Seat 4: gdragon9 ($101.75 in chips) Seat 5: wvugoody ($72.50 in chips) Seat 6: 2 Nutz x ($110.75 in chips) Seat 7: Zagga ($96 in chips) (on the button)Seat 8: sarah1986 ($104.50 in chips) Seat 9: dovehawk ($8 in chips) ***

Dealt to Zagga: 2s 3h

sarah1986 : Post Blind ($0.50)dovehawk : Post Blind ($1)***

Pre-Flop *** : PokerMartian : FoldAlwaysRaise9 : Folddow_nutz : FoldMr.Mason : Foldgdragon9 : Foldwvugoody : Fold2 Nutz x : Fold
Zagga : Call ($1)sarah1986 : Raise ($3)dovehawk : FoldZagga : Call ($2.50)***

Flop *** : 6d Ad 5c

sarah1986 : Check Zagga : Bet ($4) sarah1986 : Call ($4)***

Turn *** : [ 6d Ad 5c ] Kc sarah1986 : Bet ($5)Zagga : Call ($5)***

River *** : [ 6d Ad 5c Kc ] 9s

sarah1986 : Bet ($5) Zagga : Raise ($25) sarah1986 : Fold***

SUMMARY ***Pot: $54.25 Rake: $1.75Board: [ 6d Ad 5c Kc 9s ]PokerMartian lost $0 AlwaysRaise9 lost $0 dow_nutz lost $0 Mr.Mason lost $0 gdragon9 lost $0 wvugoody lost $0 2 Nutz x lost $0 Zagga bet $37.50, collected $54.25, net $16.75 sarah1986 lost $17.50 dovehawk lost $1


Left the cash game $14 up and then played and won a 5 max $5 turbo sng.Won $12 net for that but should have come second after hitting a lucky 2 outer at heads up when I'd been outplayed on a hand.Still I'm not going to moan about getting lucky and to be fair neither did the player I beat.


Strange drive home tonight seeing all the police around Glasgow and the helicopters overhead.All for the G8 summit at Gleneagles.About 10 police motorbikes escorting about 10 limos passed heading into the town.Not sure if Bush is staying in Glasgow or Gleneagles but it was funny to think that the world most powerful man ( after Rangers defender Big Marvin of course) may have crossed my path.

Now I'm off to the tables to hope for the opposite.I'm very much hoping the weakest men and woman in the world are about to cross my path.....

Bad Starts and reading multi-tablers

Played Project sno-blind last night till midnight when Mark went home.Only played a couple of table orbits and made a whopping $1 profit.

Just opened an email telling me I've won £1.4m in a lucky draw.Lucky old me eh.I had to send an email to woolleyar2@excite.com to start the claims process.I replied saying this was great and I look forward to getting the cheque.I'm going to send one tomorrow telling him how I've quit my job and have put a offer in on a very large house.I hate these scammers.Please spam the email addy as much as you can.

Ok no sample today.Phoned them and it needs to be in for 3.30pm and I don't finish work till after 4 so I'll do it one morning as I can start any time up till 10am.No more updates I promise.

Now to the post title.I mentioned a few postings ago that I seem to have a problem starting games in the right frame of mind.Here are some possible reasons why:

Calling/raising in marginal situations to see how people react
Playing too many good-but-not-great hands which you end up having to fold
Playing low suited connectors etc. before you've got enough reads on your opponents to be confident with them
Folding more than you would do normally because of uncertainty as to how the table is playing
Limping in with your first blind, getting second pair and ending up $5 down cos you didn't just quit when you should have.

I think playing only AA,KK and QQ for my first 1/2 hour or so may be the best solution and it would give me time to settle in to the flow of the game.Recognising a leak is one thing.Sorting it is another so I'll see how I go.

Something I've started to do now when I sit at a full ring table is check for multi-tablers and take note of them.I noticed when I used to MT myself that I'd play ABC poker and very rarely bluffed.Afterall when you play 2 0r 3 tables a playable hand is just round the corner.Usually mt players are very tight but when they bet they have the goods.Sometimes a bigger than normal bluff on the turn/river will get them to fold more easily than another player and if you can even open up the other tables they are at you can see when they're playing 2/3 hands at once and use the edge gained from that to win more money.

Ok off for my last night of low stakes nl.With my £1.4 million I may just move up a bit.....

Good night at the tables

Played 93 hands at .50 nl for a $48 profit leaving the roll at $926.I felt as if I was playing really solid poker.Still lost $13 in my first 3 hands though.

As I'd moved back down to .50nl I decided to loosen up and call this raise with my 7d5d planning to bail out if I never hit.....

Hand 1039715464, Started at 07/04/2005 11:43 PMTable 'Davao': $0.50-$0.50 No Limit Texas Hold'em (Real Money)Seat 0: Zagga ($71.75 in chips) Seat 1: x olo x ($34.20 in chips) Seat 2: shamrockn85 ($53 in chips) Seat 3: bsdpt ($43 in chips) Seat 4: MLCardwell ($56.60 in chips) Seat 5: Terpsfan690 ($60.40 in chips) Seat 6: JockoNK ($47.90 in chips) Seat 7: bgoode79 ($25.60 in chips) Seat 8: brabecbird ($16.50 in chips) (on the button)Seat 9: tomoonalice ($52.95 in chips) *** Blind Bet Round *** :

Dealt to Zagga: 5d 7d

tomoonalice : Post Blind ($0.25)Zagga : Post Blind ($0.50)***

Pre-Flop *** : x olo x : Call ($0.50)shamrockn85 : Foldbsdpt : Call ($0.50)MLCardwell : Call ($0.50)Terpsfan690 : FoldJockoNK : Foldbgoode79 : Raise ($1)brabecbird : Foldtomoonalice : Call ($0.75) Zagga : Call ($0.50) x olo x : Raise ($3) bsdpt : Fold MLCardwell : Fold bgoode79 : Call ($2.50)tomoonalice : Fold Zagga : Call ($2.50)***

Flop *** : 10d 8d 7h

Zagga : Check x olo x : Bet ($5) bgoode79 : Call ($5) Zagga : Call ($5)***

Turn *** : [ 10d 8d 7h ] 7s

Zagga : Checkx olo x : Bet ($25.70)x olo x : All Inbgoode79 : FoldZagga : Call ($25.70)***

River *** : [ 10d 8d 7h 7s ] 8h

*** SUMMARY ***Pot: $75.90 Rake: $3Board: [ 10d 8d 7h 7s 8h ]Zagga bet $34.20, collected $75.90, net $41.70 x olo x lost $34.20 Shows [ 6d 6c ] (two pairs, eights and sevens.)shamrockn85 lost $0 bsdpt lost $0.50 MLCardwell lost $0.50 Terpsfan690 lost $0 JockoNK lost $0 bgoode79 lost $8.50 brabecbird lost $0 tomoonalice lost $1

I normally can't resist betting the river if I make my hand but I'd taken the last of x olo x's last stack and I just knew he'd go all in all and get the last of his latest reload!

Heres the hand that convinced me.This was actually played before the one above.

Hand 1039651759, Started at 07/04/2005 11:17 PMTable 'Davao': $0.50-$0.50 No Limit Texas Hold'em (Real Money)Seat 0: Zagga ($45.45 in chips) Seat 1: x olo x ($32.55 in chips) Seat 2: shamrockn85 ($53.20 in chips) (on the button)Seat 3: AnnoyingPeon ($42 in chips) Seat 5: Terpsfan690 ($51.35 in chips) Seat 6: JockoNK ($54.85 in chips) Seat 7: 11FISH11 ($30.40 in chips) Seat 8: Mpennypacker ($5.25 in chips) Seat 9: tomoonalice ($56.45 in chips)

Dealt to Zagga: Jd Jh

AnnoyingPeon : Post Blind ($0.25)Terpsfan690 : Post Blind ($0.50)***

Pre-Flop *** : JockoNK : Fold11FISH11 : FoldMpennypacker : Foldtomoonalice : Fold Zagga : Raise ($2) x olo x : Call ($2) shamrockn85 : Fold AnnoyingPeon : Fold Terpsfan690 : Fold***

Flop *** : 8d 4h 4d

Zagga : Bet ($5)x olo x : Raise ($10)Zagga : Raise ($20)x olo x : Raise ($20.55)x olo x : All In Zagga : Call ($5.55)***

Turn *** : [ 8d 4h 4d ] 10h
*** River *** : [ 8d 4h 4d 10h ] 5d

*** SUMMARY ***Pot: $62.85 Rake: $3Board: [ 8d 4h 4d 10h 5d ]Zagga bet $32.55, collected $62.85, net $30.30 x olo x lost $32.55 Shows [ 3s As ] (a pair of fours.)shamrockn85 lost $0 AnnoyingPeon lost $0.25 Terpsfan690 lost $0.50 JockoNK lost $0 11FISH11 lost $0 Mpennypacker lost $0 tomoonalice lost $0

What was he thinking? He's either one of the biggest fish I've come across or was tilting badly.

Not much else to report.I'm very happy at the moment with the way my bankroll is going.I feel is though my poker is developing and I'm getting better reads on other players.I've put a brief note with any hand histories posted to show the difference a good read makes and why I played the hand in that way because without that information many of my bets must look a bit off the wall.( maybe they are sometimes!)

PS2 night tonight and Mark is on his way.Took Mrs A and Step A out for dinner to a local pub and the food was great.Steak pie n chips.Heaven!

Ok gonna zap some aliens and maybe hit the tables later.

Got my sample jar ready for tomorrow.Argghhhh! I had my swimmers checked a couple of years ago and there were plenty of them and they were morphing beautifully but gotta get 'em checked out again.Damned embarassing having to take it in to the Pathology section of the hospital for analysis. Last time the woman asked "Did you fill it up?" and I squirmed as I answered "Well not all the way to the top".I'm squirming just reading that!
Still you know your addicted to online poker when you use your best hand histories to help produce the sample.....

Enough, enough I'm off for a large herbal intake!

Pink Floyd Reunited.Pigs have flown.Live 8

What a moment.I never ever thought I would see Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour share a stage but they did last night as the last act at London Live 8 and they stole the show with an amazing performance.Hell I even left my cash game to watch it!
Breathe,Money,Wish you were here and Comfortably Numb were all superb and I had tears in my eyes watching it they were that good.( and I only cry at really emotional stuff like ET going home).Probably too much to hope for a tour but you never know.

Ok to the poker and made 83rd in the Pokerroom Major player points tourney for $15.I had been the big stack on 11k chips at my table after I bluffed at a pot with AJ ( low rainbow flop) and was called by an idiot with K9 and my A high stood up.I had avoided as many coinflips this time though and went out on a brainflip when I moved about 1/3rd of my stack in with 99 when it folded round to me in the SB.When the big stack in the BB raised me all in I was confident I was ahead as he'd been doing a lot of stealing.I could have placed higher for another few $$$ by folding but I decided if I wanted to have a chance to win it was as good a time as any to call so I did and it wasn't. He had KK and I never hit my 9.

Hit the $1 nl tables next and came away $88.75 up over 123 hands.Bought in for $70.
Bankroll now stands at $877.

KhKc was my biggest and most profitable hand.I raised to $3 and was reraised to $5 by the villan who held QhQs.This was called by another player so I reraised it to $20 and when the villan called that rather than reraise me all in I was sure I was ahead and not facing AA.Thats why I was all in on the flop for $30.50 more when it came 2h 5h 8h. Kd on the turn and another 8 on the river meant the chips were pushed my way.

Only bought in for $70 and I've mixed feelings about that.I always like to be in a position to make the most possible from a hand but I have to accept that while I'm playing solid poker just now I don't have a bankroll that would stand a bad patch at $1nl.Pokerooms session browser calls it $2nl.Not sure why though when sb is .50 and bb is $1.

Its hard to step back down and play well though.When you win $5 at .25nl with AA you can't help thinking about how it would have been $50 at $1nl.

I'm sure a bad downswing will soon have me slabbering for any $5 win I can get soon enough but for now its nice to be playing at tables where people are asking if I'll be playing in the same $50 rebuy tourneys as them while I'm still thinking about the best ways to beat $5 sng's!

Had a long lie and took the dog to the park for a run about.Still debating where to go on holiday and when.I'm quite keen to go back to Egypt to the same hotel as last year but Gran Canaria is a good option to have.( been 5 times)

Its funny how almost anything can relate to poker.Reading the above paragraph made me remember something I've only really appreciated about myself over the last couple of years.I mention it because they say that to be a good poker player you must know yourself first.I used to think I was quite an impulsive guy.The kind who takes chances and gets bored when there's no change or freshness in my life.

Maybe I'm mellowing in my ( very early lol) thirties but I'm actually the kind of person who likes the same routine and going to the same places on holiday.I like moaning about work but haven't considered looking elsewhere.( well the moneys ok). I listen to mostly the same music I did 10 years ago and when I find a book by an author I like I stick to their books till I''ve read them.On holidays I split the 2 weeks money in to daily spending amounts and never go over budget.I keep everything and throw out nothing.

Is there a point here? I'm not sure but I think what I'm trying to say is that its not a good idea to try and adopt an alien poker style your personality type and that knowing your own personality may not be as easy as it seems.

Ok enough of that bollocks! Time for some poker....