Sunday, August 31, 2008

End of Month Stats

My Gran passed away early on Saturday morning.She had been suffering from severe dementia and had no quality of life at all.It was expected and although I feel a little numb,I'm glad she's at peace now.

I'm just back from the Old Firm game at the Piggery after watching Rangers thrash our rivals 4-2."So fuckin' easy,Oh this is so fuckin' easy" and "Come on over to my place,Hey you,We're havin' a party" were my favourite chants of the day.

The first Rangers goal was a beauty and it seems a moment of high emotion like that was enough to bring things to a head and I finally broke down a bit and cried.Perhaps some of the numbness melted away.It happened again at other moments during the game and even although I feel alzheimer's disease means the person suffering dies slowly before you over a period of a few years ,I think I've realised the actual end is still tougher to cope with than I expected.I suppose it's also at times like this ( been single again for a wee while)that I miss having a partner and someone to turn to, although I appreciate the support from family,ex 's and friends.I am ok, although I expect the funeral on Thursday will be hard.

My cousin offered to come round last night but I didn't feel like company.I just wanted to smoke a ton of herb ( nowt new there then!) and throw myself into the poker.No great poker recap.I did win over the last couple of nights and did reach my goal of breaking the $8k profit barrier according to Sharkscope.

Here's my graph for the month.I watched a Brian Townsend vid and if he finds playing more than four tables too hard then I think it's ok for me to admit I'll probably never be an 8-12 tabling player.That wee experiment and general downswing certainly cost me this month, but thankfully since I moved back to 3-4 tabling, my poker mo-jo seems to have returned.



Profit Overall/August:



All time graph:



Overall finishing positions:


Ok,I'm having dinner over at the ex Mrs A's shortly after picking Step A up.I probably wont play much tonight apart from the Brit Blogger game and the RTR league game so I'll just post my monthly stats for August and be done with it.

Pokerstars $11791 ( + $447),Party $1289 ( + $268),Full Tilt $157 ( - $21),Ladbrokes $336 ( =),Bet 365 $478 ( - $42) Pokerroom $36 ( =) Total $14087. ( + $652 for month)


Don't forget there's $50 added to the prizepool for tonights Brit Blogger game and nobody looks to have a runaway lead yet in the race for the big prizes....


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Friday, August 29, 2008

Guess the hand...

No poker on Wednesday night as I was babysitting and visiting my Gran.When I arrived home and put the tv on,it switched itself off and now only comes on for 1/2 sec before reverting to standby mode.It's less than 2 yrs old and now I need to decide if I want to pay for someone to try and fix it.I'm tempted to raid the poker account for a 42" Plasma but my Mum and Dad have lent me a 26" tv set for now, and as I watch very little tv,I'm not sure if I should be splashing out on a new one.Hmmm.

Last night I was over seeing my Gran again before Nacho and I had a fine dinner at my Mum and Dads.My Gran can't eat,is barely taking any liquid and sadly it's just a matter of time now.I even got a new suit yesterday and I'm expecting the phone to ring anytime with the news of her passing.Sad times.

I did hit the tables later,firing up three $16 tables and allowing myself to slip into donkey mode after my AK lost to 88 in the first one.I wasn't tilting but I was far from playing my best game.I hit up four more and after building a decent stack in all of them,I was dealt decent hands on all four tables at once and instead of using my timebank I rushed my decisions.This meant my premium pair was busted by a flopped flush on one table and I wasted my decent sized stack on another by calling someone down with JJ on a King high flop.( The second King on the turn convinced me he didn't have it.KJ obviously!)

I did win one and came 2nd in the the other to finish that set of four before failing to cash in a couple of $22's at Party.All very exciting I'm sure you'll agree!

Time to share a few thoughts on a player type you may recognise.Time to callout the Over Player.Yep while most of us are happy to fold our big blind if we don't have a hand or don't feel the same player is picking on it,the Over player will take his time on every single occasion his blind is raised even if it's only the first level.It's as if you've broken into their house,removed food from their babies mouth and had your wicked way with his Missus.

Too much credit is always given to the villains thought process which in turn leads to making hero calls against such villains.The Over Player always suspects he is being bluffed or outplayed and while the later is probably true,the chances are that they actually outplayed themselves with their Harrington like level 48 thinking.These guys/gals are not the worst of the players out there but they don't do themselves any favours with their over thinking and fancy plays.

Ok,tonight the ex is coming round tonight to clean the flat,I've got Nacho for the weekend and on Sunday my cousin and I will be at the Stydome for the first Old Firm game of the season against the soapdodgers.

Time for another Guess the hand for a wonderful prize competition! As nobody guessed correctly the last time I've decided that the $5 prize will.....remain the same! The only hint I'll give is to try and avoid using any kind of vaguely sensible poker thought process.This is Party Poker afterall! One guess only and I'll keep it open for a few days....

***** Hand History for Game 7333442607 ***** From a $22 turbo.
20/40 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) (STT Tournament 41743721) - Thu Aug 28 18:36:57 EDT 2008
Table Speed 1333087 (Real Money) -- Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Onego_66 (1960)
Seat 2: rfireky (1840)
Seat 3: quintee (1840)
Seat 4: Rococo8200 (2000)
Seat 5: Sotha_Sil (2000)
Seat 6: Acornmn (2000)
Seat 7: reddevil339 (2700)
Seat 8: infamous6666 (1800)
Seat 9: afrim303 (1940)
Seat 10: Call_Any4 (1920)
Onego_66 posts small blind (20)
rfireky posts big blind (40)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Acornmn [ Ks, Ad ]
quintee calls (40)
Rococo8200 folds
Sotha_Sil folds
Acornmn raises (200) to 200
reddevil339 folds
infamous6666 folds
afrim303 folds
Call_Any4 folds
Onego_66 calls (180)
rfireky folds
quintee calls (160)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ac, 9s, 9d ]
Onego_66 bets (560)
quintee folds
Acornmn calls (560)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ As ]
Onego_66 checks
Acornmn bets (240)
Onego_66 calls (240)
** Dealing River ** : [ 4h ]
Onego_66 checks
Acornmn bets (1000)
Acornmn is all-In.
Onego_66 calls (960)
Onego_66 is all-In.
Creating Main Pot with $4160 with Onego_66
** Summary **
Main Pot: 4160
Board: [ Ac 9s 9d As 4h ]

What does onego_66 call me down with?

Ok,here's a quick one from the paper which brought a smile to my face...

A reader tells us he took his family for a special meal at a country-house hotel which had mounted stags' heads in the foyer. One of them had a couple of party hats hanging from its antlers.

Noticing his young daughter had stopped walking and was staring at the head, he told her that unfortunately some folk liked to hunt animals.

"But why did they have to shoot him on his birthday?" she wailed.

Back soon...

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

leaderboard + $50 added to Sundays game...

“We can confirm we have transferred your doomswitch to Full Tilt and it will be fully active for the duration of your play on that site.We look forward to seeing you again soon on Pokerstars and please be assured that on your return to ‘Stars, your usual high level of bad beats and suckouts will remain unaffected by this transfer.( you’re always doomed on Stars!)

Please also be aware we are constantly seeking to improve our poker players downswing experience and look forward to beta testing some exciting and new innovative ways our Random Number Generator can screw you over.Don't be a stranger!
Lots of love,Pokerstars Support


Yeah,it seems my recent horrible luck at Stars has now taken hold at Full Tilt.I was fairly card dead during last nights Blogger challenge game and when Bully raised my blind yet again,I decided to flat call with J10.The flop came Jack high,I called Bullys large overbet and his K4 bluff hit a King on the turn to send me packing.

Here is a link to the current Brit Blogger challenge leaderboard as requested: The grand prizes ( trip to London/hotel accommodation/meet the pros) are still very much up for grabs as they are only open to UK/Rep Ireland residents.Sir Alcanthang has done a great job getting this all put together and if you’re a Brit blogger or reader you’re missing out on superb opportunity if you don’t play in the game! Next installment is on Sunday and SirAl has just been in touch to say that $50 will be added to the prizepool!

After the Britblogger game I took a break and then fired up some Super Turbos.I couldn’t seem to get a hand to hold or win a race in those games either and eventually logged out and onto Party poker for a couple of $22 turbs before bedtime.

On my very first steal of my starting game I ran into Aces.I did manage to win the other one for $100 and even got lucky in one or two hands on the way.In fact I had fun as the clown I eventually beat heads up said “No way” in the chat box after he lost a 60/40. “Way” I replied which seemed to tilt the villain into spewing off the rest of his chips.

Babysitting for Step A again tonight.Back soon...

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Britblogger Challenge Continues....



Congrats to Angusrut for taking down the Brit Blogger game on Sunday evening.The next game will be tonight at 8.30pm on Full Tilt.I bubbled again. This time there were two biggish stacks and I was one of the two smaller stacks.I shoved 99 from the sb and was called by the other shortstack in the BB holding K10 o/s.( King on flop) Grrrreat!

I scraped 5th in the RTR league game after I shoved KJ sooted over Hammerheids preflop raise with AJ.I didn't improve and that was that.

Next up,I fired up a couple of Party $22's and of course my first bad beat was getting my Aces whupped by the powerhouse hand of the night...K10! I then had Kings beaten by A7 ( no Ace but a 7 on the turn and another on the river),Queens beaten by A4 and only cashed in one out of the four games I played.

I read an article today which said that people spend on average £280 per year on their hobbies and I've always been grateful to have a hobby which actually pays me.It also said people use their hobbies to alleviate stress! Obviously not an article written by a poker player!

I looked after Step A last night and I'm doing the same on Wednesday after work.I enjoyed watching her play Guitar Hero with her friends, although I felt nearer Dudleys age than 36 when one of her friends asked me if Alice Cooper was a girl after I requested a bit of "Schools Out"!

On Thursday evening I'm picking up Nacho and having a steak dinner at my Mum and Dads.Only three more weeks including this week before I'm off work for a fortnight and I'm almost counting the hours already.Although my cousin is skint and none of my friends are free,I may still head to Amsterdam for a couple of nights.I may aswell put some of my recent winnings to good use! ( I've also run out of duty free cigs)

I wrote all of the above earlier before my Dad called to say my Gran had taken a turn for the worse.I've just been to the nursing home to see her and the Docs reckon she is too weak to even travel a few miles to hospital.She doesn't seem to be in any pain and I don't honestly think prolonging her life at this stage ( severe dementia) would be doing her any favours.Very sad as it was only 2 1/2 yrs ago she was in good spirits when attending my sisters wedding.

Ok,thanks for reading...

Sunday, August 24, 2008

3000 Not Out!



Although some grinders can sail through 3000 sng's per month,I've finally hit that mark and I'm now only just a bit short ( seems like a glass ceiling)of my recent $8k Sharkscope profit goal.

Most of those 3000 sngs have been played over the last year after I hit a bad run of variance at cash games and decided to try something different.I do miss playing with the late night weekend crazies at $50 and $100nl 6 max Ladbrokes tables,but after 3 years of low stakes cash play I've enjoyed learning a new type of poker and have done better than I could ever have expected.( despite the last two months of bad beat hell!)

Last night I began by playing a couple of $16's alongside the $20 Silver Star freeroll MTT.I failed to cash in the MTT, although I made a decent start at the $16's.I started out playing 3 games,soon moved onto 4 and felt I coped quite well with the pace.Ideally I like to have 2 games close to the final table ( 18 player games) and 2 games at the early stages running.This way I can focus on former and play very tight/aggro at the newer games.

I've always chosen to tile or cascade my tables when 4 tabling.I learned from watching a Cardrunners vid that if you don't chose either option,the "action" table will always pop up anyway.I now have them overlapping ( 17" Laptop) which I prefer as I can still see my hands ( at the end of my arms!)and the tables are big enough to be able to follow the action better and pick up reads.

I did lose to 4-5 one outers last night which was frustrating, but I also played 38 games and if I raced 3-4 times per tourney I suppose a few really nasty ones are to be expected.Overall I won $310 and finished playing just as the clock hit 5am.I've now won $786 over 81 games since the 15th and hopefully I can avoid another horrible downswing for a while.I'm still only up $297 from 397 games since Aug 1st according to Sharky, which just goes to show the effect variance/my 8-12 tabling donkery has on my stats.I'd have embedded Avril Lavigne's "Happy Ending" here if it wasn't disabled on youtube!

My late night has left me feeling quite tired today ,but I'm already starting the countdown to my next holiday from work in mid September.( no bank holiday in Scotland tomorrow sadly!)

Ok,my brain is too fuzzy to write anymore! Just time to link to an excellent football article in todays Times.The last pararaph in particular made for refreshing reading considering the crap the Scottish media usually churn out.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to register for tonights Britbloggerment on Full Tilt and for the Raise the River league game on Stars....

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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Britblogger Challenge



I had a fine evening over at the S-mans watching "Batman Begins" and chewing the fat.Came 3rd in a $22 at Party,crashed out of three $16's at Stars and went to bed when I got home.

Today I've just finished watching Rangers draw 1-1 with Aberdeen after having a legitimate late winner ruled out for offside.Our rivals drew 1-1 last week after their opponents ( Dundee Utd) were denied a stonewall penalty and it seems the decisions which helped our rivals win the title last season are continuing this year.

Just time for a wee clip from one of my favourite movie opening scenes.I love this tune!Probably NSFW.Is it just me or does anyone else reckon Shamus over at Hardboiled poker sounds a bit like K-Billys super sounds of the 70's on his excellent poker podcasts?




Ok,off to walk Nacho before it rains and then it's time to play some poker.

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Friday Grump



Babysitting for Step A the other night was a pleasure as always.She was on good form ( for a moody teen!)and I'm pleased that even although I split from her Mum last year,the wee one is happy to sit and watch crap tv and chat away to me.They now have a kitten in their house along with a hamster and Nacho.( when he's not at my place) I said it reminded me of the old woman who swallowed a fly song and the wee one looked at me as if I had two heads! "She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,I don't know why she swallowed the fly,perhaps she'll die..." Ahh never mind!

I watched the highlights of Scotland's 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland.My gran was from Portadown and I've always had a soft spot for Norn Iron.It was great to see the away support take over Glasgow city centre during the day and I hope their trip wasn't marred by the embarrassing actions of Strathclyde police who confiscated a Northern Ireland flag, believing it to be illegal for sectarian reasons! The flag was returned and an apology rightly issued.One Scotland,many cultures eh!

The Scottish national team followers are often referred to as the "Tartan Army" for obvious reasons.I don't mind that monicker at all, but ( and maybe I'm turning into an old grump!)it really does my nut in to read those fans constantly referred to in the media as "foot soldiers".Real foot soldiers fight and risk life and limb for their countries as opposed to getting drunk abroad and lifting their kilts to moon at by-passers.

A few other things making me grumpy these days are the daily newspaper headlines that state "Fears grow" or "Fears sparked by..".Not a day goes by without a paper telling us to be fearful for one reason or another.Calling arsonists "firebugs" also annoys me! Dunno why,it just does.

The newspaper stories which do make me smile are the ones where Mum has opened a supermarket pizza for example and found metal slicer/human hair/elephant.It's not so much the story which tickles me but the accompanying photograph of the family invloved all looking as glum and downcast as possible.We spent our lives being told to "say cheese" and smile for the camera and I'd love to be a fly on the wall as the papers photographer snaps the pizza family.Even the kids are made to pose as if their world has just fallen down around them.I may just start a "glum photo" scrapbook or blog..!

To the poker ( at last eh!) and I played a couple of $11,18 player turbs on Full Tilt and watched my 66 fall to A5 ( and noted that Full Tilt deck also contains 14 Aces just like Stars!) and came fourth in the other when my 88 fell to 33.( 3 on river obviously)

I fired up two Party $22's before bed and when my AK lost to K9 in the one of them,I was beginning to get that "Why does it always rain on me?" feeling.I did take 2nd in the other and hit the sack straight afterwards.

I've got Nacho until Sunday and plan on visiting the S-man this evening.Poker,watching the Gers and catching up on my sleep are my plans for the rest of the weekend...

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Party on...

I brought my "z" game to the Brit Blogger game last night,donking out first after playing as if I'd never sat at a virtual table in my life! Only four showed up which ( on the bright side!) means that despite being four games into the mini-series ,the prizes are still very much up for grabs.Next installment is on Sunday at Full Tilt.

I watched an Sngicons Spacegravy video after my crashout and it made me almost dizzy just watching him playing 25 tables! I fired up 'Stars, but the $16's were full of tough regulars and although that usually wouldn't bother me, I ended up watching more of "Imcastleman" and a couple of other top $16 grinder pro's before opening Party to hit the $22's.

I only played four games and managed a win,2nd,3rd and a crashout for an aprox $115 profit.The crashout was my own fault as I had the chiplead and shoved A7 over a shortstack's shove.He showed 1010 and I cursed my stupidity.Sometimes I can be too aggressive in the wrong spots and that's a leak I'll need to keep an eye on.I was only two tabling and although almost all my sng experience has been at 18 player games,I'm finding I quite enjoy the single table variety too.

The standard at Party $22's is comparable to Stars $6 games.( on average as every game is different) I couldn't believe some of the donk plays I witnessed.Part of the reason I prefer sngs to cash ( did I really write that?!) is because I love to abuse bubble situations by raising almost every hand.If stack sizes and table conditons are correct then it's a very effective way to build a huge chipstack.I'm usually ultra-tight until the blinds reach 200/400 and can get away with a couple of moves to give me the leeway to start pounding the bubble.

Ok,no poker tonight as I'm babysitting.Back soon...

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Britbloggerment Continues...

The Brit Blogger challenge continues tonight on Full Tilt at 8.30pm UK time ( 3.30pm est).Find it under the Private tab in the Full Tilt lobby.It's only $5.50,the password is "donkament" and although everyone is welcome to play,the top two leaderboard prizes can only go to UK/Rep of Ireland players.There's plenty to play for even if you haven't played any of the three games so far.

The remaining games will take place on Tues/Sundays with a final Saturday game on the 13th Sept.Top two on the Leaderboard win the Grand Prizes.Full Tilt will pay cash for transportation and hotel in London for 17th/18th September for the taping of the Million Dollar Cash Game at The Hellenic Centre.Winners will be there to witness one of the biggest cash games in the world up close and will also get a chance to meet and greet the pros.

No poker at all last night after being called away to babysit for Step A at the last minute.( babysitting on Wednesday night too) We took Nacho over to my Mum and Dads place and had a fine evening there apart from one minor mishap.My Dad mentioned he had bought some type of flame throwing type weed killer and when I asked to see it and followed him to the garage,Nacho followed too and lifted his leg on my Mums heat trolley.That's my boy!

As I didn't play any poker last night, I thought I'd continue recapping the $50 Mtt I cashed in last month.( see Mtt recap post for more)I had just reached the five hour mark and was now the bigstack ( 225k) at my table after Aces held against JJ.Blinds now 3000/6000 with 600 ante.

5hrs 7mins: Opened raised just under 2.5bb with KK.A 166k stack reraised and folded when I came over the top.Up to 258k.

5hrs 15: Raised 2.5bb from utg+1 with KQ and took the pot uncontested.( 257k)

5hrs 21: Open raised Q8o/s from sb and bb folded.( 244k)

5hrs 24: Crucial moment as Mr Edge says hello to me in the tourney chatbox and adds his random "nice river mate" comment for good measure! Standard.

5hrs 38: Raised 3BB utg with AQ and take pot uncontested.Blinds now 4000/8000 with 800 antes.( 224k)

5hrs 40: I have 216k and open raise to 3bb from the small blind on a steal with 9h3h.( there is 19.2k in pot with all the blinds and antes) The bigstack big blind flat calls and we see a 10h 2c 4h flop.I lead with a 40k bet into the 59k pot with my flush draw,hoping to take it down.The villain flat calls again and the Kh comes on the turn completing my fairly well disguised flush.I didn't want to allow an Ah10 type hand to make a bigger flush on the river and I remember hoping the villain had a big enough piece of the board to call as I shoved for my remaining 151k.The villain called,was drawing dead with KsJc and the Qs on the river didn't matter as I scooped the 437k pot.

5hrs 42: I fold 77 to a raise and reraise before me and KK takes the pot.

5hrs 45:I raise just under 3bb utg ( first to act) with 22 and fold to a large reraise.

5hrs 51: Table is 7 handed for now with blinds at 5000/10000 and 1000 ante.I raise 3bb utg and take it uncontested.( 411k)

5hrs 51: walk in bb and a 3bb raise with AJ takes next pot uncontested.( 438k)


5hrs 59: 7 handed I raise 3bb utg+1 and get a caller from the bb who has me covered.The villain donk bets 40k into the 72k pot on a 2s Jc 9h flop and folds when I reraise to 110k.( 472k)

6hrs 4: Blinds now 6000/12000 ante 1200.I raise 3bb from button with 10h5h and take pot uncontested.( 453k)

6hrs 8:Steal from mid position with Q10. ( 452K)

6hrs 9: Steal with 9c6s from button works.( 453k)

6hrs 10: Raise 3bb with k9s and fold to reraise.( 416k)

6hrs 13: Raise 3bb with my favourite hand,J9 sooted and take pot uncontested.( 416k)

6hrs 15:Still 7 handed I raise KJ and take it uncontested.( 439k)

6hrs 18: Another button steal with Q6.( 452K)

6hrs 26: Final table! 354k stack. To be continued...

In the door late tonight thanks to the worst rain I've ever seen flooding most of the roads on the way home.I had to wade through ankle deep water to get from my car to the front of my block of flats!

Ok,time to go and register for tonights game...

Monday, August 18, 2008

Mon Update

Thanks to everyone who showed up for last nights Bloggerment on Full Tilt.The fun continues tomorrow night and with only two games gone and the London trip still up for grabs,there's plenty to play for!

I bubbled last nights Bloggerment game.My exit hand is a total blank which probably means I made a donk move! Well done to BurnelyBB10 on taking it down.I was playing the RTR league game at the same time and came 3rd ,at least making the points, after my 99 was out flipped by Burnley Miks AQ.The biggest hand for me in that game was when I called Scouses AQ shove with 33 and my hand held.Bad call?I remember last weeks game where Scouse insta-called my shove with his AJ and my thoughts were that if he rated that as a premium insta-call hand then his open shoving range may be quite wide.I was also the shortstack and happy to take a flip to try and chip up.Well done to Yorkie Pud for taking it down.

After those games I moved to Party and hit up a few $22's.( single table)
I read someone on Pocketfives ( American) saying he'd "chop off my own finger to play on Party again" and he has a point! I was always the biggest advocate for table selection when it came to cash games and I do sometimes wonder why I continue to play at Stars when the Party games are far softer.

I two tabled at Party and after losing a few races and suffering a few crashouts,I got into my groove with a 3rd and a win to finish off before bed for a decent profit.

I'm just happy to be winning again.I was beginning to feel like a real fishy loser logging on and spewing Dollars everytime I fired up turbos.Hoyazo wrote that at least he still posts when running badly.I do too, but it was becoming more of a boring whinefest than usual on this blog and I think the break was well timed.I was also beginning to doubt myself and my playing style.I suppose in some respects people enjoy reading about bad beats and downswings! The first blog I ever read was SirWaffles and his bankroll busting tilt spew posts were certainly more compelling than "played a couple and won two games" type blogs.

Anyways it was quite relaxing only playing two tables last night.I tried and failed to get hot key auto-scripts to work on Stars the other day and can't seem to get a HUD to work on my Vista driven laptop either.Very frustrating and I don't think I'd attempt playing more than six tables again without at least having a working HUD to show me opponents stats.Perhaps Pokertracker 3 is the way to go.Hmmm.

Ok,the ex has just called and asked me to look after Step A tonight at short notice.Back soon...

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Britbloggerment on Full Tilt tonight!

Thanks to everyone who showed up to play in last nights Britblogger challenge game.Hammerheid and Alcanthang were the winners of the $120+9 tickets and best of luck to both in today's FTOPS event.The fun continues tonight with the Britbloggerment game starting at it's usual time ( 4pm est/9pm UK time) with the usual "donkament" password over on Full Tilt.My game ended last night when I slow played Aces ( called a pf raise from the button) and allowed my opponent to flop the nut straight.Niiiice!

I went on to have another swingy night at the $16's on Stars.I'm not going to review the last ten days or so at the tables.Imagine a poker hell where very few races are won and bad beats just pile up on each other.Multiply that nightmare by a large number and that's how I've run recently.

I was making $4-$5-ish per sng playing 2-3 tables and I thought if I could make at least $2 per game,playing 6-12 tables then potentially I could play 60-100 per day and make a decent profit.I was happy to sacrifice the ego pleasing stuff like having a high roi/a wee shark next to my name on Sharkscope etc for more overall $$.It didn't work out that way!

As I mentioned I do feel that I ran horribly and have never seen anything like it in all my time playing sngs, but I'm honest enough to admit my auto-pilot 8-12 tabling game could probably be a lot better too.The best thing I did since my last post was to take a 3 day break from playing and I'll try and remember that lesson during future downswings.

Of course being a poker degen, although I didn't play, I watched training vids and ( although I don't usually rail games)spent some time watching "Imcastleman" destroy the $16 games.I've played with some excellent ( and some poor!)regulars at the $16's, but Imcastleman is on another planet when it comes to low level turbos and I'd highly recommend searching for him on Stars one night to see how a complete sicko goes about his work!

The good news for me is that last nights swings finally went in my favour and I've managed to claw back my sng losses on Stars for the month by a few $$.I don't recall the last time Sharkscope said I was "Super hot"!! Seems like many many games ago that's for sure!

I do need to quit playing Super turbs on Full Tilt though.My FT roll would be completey down the swanny if it hadn't been for a couple of profitable cash sessions earlier in the month.My FT roll is not big enough to handle the variance these $7.50 and $14.50 ,300 chip super donk fests dish out!

Thanks to a post over at Poker Pains I realised that my $13.5k Bankroll is actually worth a good bit more than it was in £ thanks to the Dollar gaining strength! That consoled me slightly as I watched yet another premium hand go up the spout at Stars recently!

Ok,time to take Nacho out before it rains again.Thanks for reading...

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Saturday, August 16, 2008

DO NOT MISS....

...Tonights game at 7pm UK time on Full Tilt!

There are still only 6 players registered! Remember it's open to all UK bloggers and readers,it's only $5.50 to enter and the top two win $120 +9 tickets to Sundays FTOP's Event 24!

Event 24 has a $400k gtd prize pool and is a knock-out tourney too so you get $20 for anyone you dispatch! $80k is the 1st prize!

Be there and don't let some other Monkey/pig take down a big score when it could be you...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

New Britblogger Challenge!

Alcanthang,The Cloud and I have worked in conjunction with Full Tilt Poker to bring about a great new series of tournaments with some great prizes for British Bloggers.

The first game takes place on saturday 16th August( 7pm UK/2pm est under private tab), and for this individual game, the top two finishers will win a
ticket to FTOPS event number 24!

This game will also form the first of a series of games -
one being the weekly Bloggerment on sunday nights (now on
Full Tilt), and another game every tuesday night. These will
run until saturday 13th September, where there will be
another saturday night game to finish the series.

The top two finishers (UK and Ireland players only) in the
series will win an all-expenses paid trip to London
including hotel costs for the live recording of the
"Million Dollar Cash Game" at the Hellenic centre
on the 17th/18th September!

Confirmed players are Phil Hellmuth, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Eli Elezra, Tom "Durrr" Dwan, Tony G, Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson,Patrick Antonius, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Allen Cunningham.

All games with have a $5 buy-in and the password is:"donkament".

The league table will be updated by Alcanthang on his blog
and he will be using the following formula to determine the standings.

Points = 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)] Where:n
is the number of entrants k is the place of finish (k=1 for
the first-place finisher, and so on) b is the buy-in amount
in dollars. For freerolls the buy-in is $0

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Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Break

As I've got a bit of a stomach bug and as I'm still running worse then ever at the turbos ( lost another $200 yesterday over a ton of games at Stars and up $70 from some Party $22's)I'm taking a blogging break for 10-14 days.I'm not too disheartened by my current sng downswing and will keep battering away at them.It's just the way poker goes sometimes and I need to grin,bear it and grind my way through it.It's been a rough couple of months in sng land but ( and this month may be the first!)I've not had a losing month for as long as I can recall and I need to remember I'm a hugely over bankrolled hobby player and the swings I'm seeing are pretty standard for the games I'm playing.

Ok,thanks for reading,back in a while and here's a post I'd saved from ages ago...

I've almost always stuck to the premise that showing my mucked/uncalled hand is a bad idea as it's giving away free information, and in poker information is like gold dust.I also don't think I'm smart enough to flash my uncalled hands and then deal with the change in table image this may bring.( showing a big bluff for example)

I still believe that, but will now occasionally show if it's folded round to me and I've raised with a premium hand and taken the blinds uncontested.This helps solidfy the tight image I like to project and means the first time I make the same move with garbage ( if required) I should still get some respect.

I'm sure we've all been in situations where the big blind gets a walk, everyone folds, the big blind takes the pot and flashes a premium hand as if to say "you were right not to steal as I had a monster and would have played back at you".I've also seen plenty of cases where the big blind proudly shows some crappy Ace rag hand and you can just tell he would have been proud to defend with that too.

Here's a secret,I don't often defend my big blind in tourneys.I will reraise with a wide range if I feel an individual is taking liberties, but generally I want to be first into the pot and not be the one calling.It may affect the whole dynamic of my game, but I wondered if it's worth proudly showing an average hand to the table if I get a walk in the big blind to try and give the impression I'd be happy to defend with a much wider range than is really true.

On another note poker is a game of never say never and I recall calling a regular fairly shortstacked players raise with 89 off the other day.Although I had a decent sized stack and the pot was offering me reasonable odds,I'm fairly sure in terms of that hand ( even though I knew the regular was shoving very wide) it was an -ev call.( it would lose money long term).I called because I felt I wasn't a huge underdog,I had the chance to take out one of the better players left and I wouldn't lose a ton of equity if I did lose the hand.

I did lose the hand above and was telling myself not to be so daft in future when I realised my "fishy call" meant that I'd gained several walks in my big blind ,most probably due to the fact the solid regular in the small blind was suddenly worried that he couldn't shove on me because I'd call with a very wide range.It struck me that perhaps the occasional very loose call ( when you have enough chips to afford it) may have some value later in the game,even if you actually lose the initial hand.

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Sunday, August 03, 2008

Still Grinding...



No poker on Friday night and last night I lost $258 after battering my way through sixty $16 turbos.It's not an easy game when you can't win a race or get big hands to hold often enough, but although I'm not happy at last nights results,I'm quite pleased I managed to play so many games.Maybe my "gulp" limit is finally on the up or I'm just getting more used to the swingy nature of multi-tabling turbs.I did wager $960 in total so it could have been even worse!

The plan this month is to keep grinding the $16's,hit the $8k profit mark on Sharkscope at Stars and possibly play some more MTT's too.According to Sharky I've still finished 1st more often than any other position in all the sng's I've played and I'm just hoping one day soon the variance will even out and I can play 60 games and perhaps win 10-15 of them.

I have stopped trying to be so polite with the time clock! By that I mean that I usually make my decisions quickly when playing just a few tables and when playing 6-8tabs I always liked to keep making instant decisions to avoid holding up the game for others.I do still feel a bit rushed when I'm cascading 8 tables and the damn software is beeping like mad to tell me I've got action on another table, but I'm learning to be more patient and use the time allotted to me more wisely.

Ok,tonight is the Bloggerment game and also the first RTR league game and I'll probably end up playing both.

First up I'm taking Nacho up the road and coming back for dinner....

Friday, August 01, 2008

Monthly Stats

After arriving home from Rangers poor 0-0 draw on Wednesday night ,I fired up a few $7.50 Super Turbs and managed a few in the money finishes.This was after two dreadful $16 turbos on Stars.The first one saw me raise with AK,call a fish shoving with A4 and losing when the 4 came on the flop.In the other game I was totally card dead and ended up shoving K4 from mid position just after the blinds rose to 200/400.The table was fishy and expecting a call,I closed the table and waited for the beep and wee box popping up to tell me "You have donked out 7th".I wasn't wrong!

Last night I was so tired I had a 25 minute nap around 7-ish before heading over to the s-mans place to watch a highbrow French arthouse film .Errr ok,it was actually "The Hitman" and was complete nonsense, but the company was good and I didn't get back until around 11.30ish.

I fired up four $16's to round off July at the virtual felt and managed a 1st,2nd and 4th for a nice $152 profit.It may not have been a great month for me at the turbos, but hopefully I have at least improved my multi-tabling skills as I felt quite comfortable tiling 4 games and I was still able to pick up a few basic reads.

To the stats and July '08 was by far the most profitable month I've ever had playing poker.I may need to play more Mtt's!

Pokerstars $11344 ( + $4562) ,Party $1021 ( + $27),Bet 365 $520 ( - $14),Full Tilt $178 ( + $69),Ladbrokes $336 ( =) ,Pokerroom $36 ( =).Total $13435. ( + $4644 profit for July)

I should probably cash some money out and at least have it earning interest for me rather than the poker sites.I really haven't given much thought to plans for August at the felt.I'd like to continue to learn to multi-table the turbos and I'd also like to run a bit better when playing them too!

I suppose I'm slightly wary of playing a ton more $50 Mtt's and blowing though a couple of grand thanks to inexperience and general variance, although I now have enough of a cushion to do just that.I'm far too much of a bankroll nit for my own good.

When I began playing with real money the lowest cash tables available at Pokerroom were at $25nl and the play was so bad that it would have been hard to go broke with even a small bankroll.I've probably got a cheek considering how bankroll nitty I am, but when I see fellow bloggers/forum players sticking strictly to buy-in rules at the lowest levels, I want to shake them and tell them to try just a little higher, because unless they run really badly,there's not much chance of busting due to the fishy fishness of the competition.

Of course in the past when pros like Amatay have encouraged me to move up I've balked at it for all sorts of reasons from lack of confidence to simply gulping at the thought of how much a very standard "bad night" at that level may cost me.This probably makes me a total hypocrite! It doesn't stop me thinking that any solid winning player at levels below $25nl should at least step up a little and try to push on.

I would also encourage players to find a style that works for them.Too often I read people on many of the forums I frequent stating that someone should ammend their play based on supposed optimal stats taken from books etc.I have to admit when I first watched Cardrunners cash vids I was surprised how aggressive preflop the players were and certainly whenever I've ( and it's not been often since I discovered turbo sngs) played $100 or $200nl, I'm certainly more pro-active and less of a nut peddler than I was.

Having said that, table selection is the secret to cash game success and I did quite well at $50/$100 nl by selecting crazy wild tables and playing a fairly passive game preflop and crazy aggro myself postflop.Some of my Pokertracker stats are on my old slow laptop and although I've no way of getting a screenshot they were as follows: 27464 six max hands at Ladbrokes.Vpip 30.39% Preflop raise = 6.87%.Flop agg 1.38,Turn 1.30,River 2.67. bb/100= 7.45 .Total winnings $1869.



I think my point is ( there is one!) that there are many ways to skin a cat and the best way is to adapt to the particular circumstances at the time.If you play high aggro tables full of maniacs ( my cash game preference) then a passive,limping game may well be the best ploy for example.( of course I'd move to major aggro mode myself whenever I felt I was well ahead either pre or post flop).

Ok,tonight the ex Mrs A is coming over for some more flat cleaning.I have Nacho until Sunday too, although it's raining so hard I doubt we'll get our usual game of football at the local pitches.

Back soon...

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