End of Month Stats

Apologies first to anyone who looked for the Brit Blogger game in the Full Tilt lobby last night and couldn't find it.I noticed just before I went out and bearing in mind the low numbers recently I didn't think it was worth cancelling my night out to try and get the game on.I don't know if moving it back to Stars is worth a try or the game has simply run its course.Perhaps a break for a few weeks or making it a monthly game may improve the numbers.

To my stats and I notice my Sharkscope curse has struck again at Party.I played two games there on Thursday night,came 1st and 2nd in $22's and Sharky has failed to capture the results.Their system has a way of submitting missing results but not for Party poker.Grrrrr! Of course I only played two games last night late on at Stars and it had no trouble capturing my early crash out and bubble finish!

End of month stats are as follows.( may be edited later if I play)

Pokerstars $1553 ( + $303 over 115 games), Party $2461 ( + $733 over 137 games),Full Tilt $167 ( - $500 includes $200 deposit and $300 losses at tables),Pokerroom $0 ( -$100 cashout)

Total $4181 ( + $536 for month)

Overall I'm happy with them, although it would have been a better month if I'd stayed away from Full Tilt and not hit a bit of a wall at Party over the last week or so.

Ok,back soon...

It's a results business...

We won the cup semi 3-0 the other night and ( thanks to Bully’s reminder) I enjoyed watching the second episode of the Full Tilt Million Dollar cash game, ( the game Bully and I attended last Sept) although once again the cameras failed to pick up Ivey and co begging Bully and me for the Brit Blogger password during the breaks between hands…At the game itself we obviously had no idea of the hole cards being played and it’s great to finally see exactly how the big hands played out.

I only played a couple of $22’s afterwards,crashing out of both and once again hit the sack at a reasonable time.Last night I enjoyed another pub dinner on the way home from work before hitting up the $22’s again and once again finding myself being scudded at every turn.After having KK busted twice in a row,followed by my Aces going up in smoke,I took a break and tried to clear my head.( by rolling another!)

I loved the latest post over at Hardboiled poker about being results orientated. I desperately try not to fall into that trap but rarely succeed.Even this week I said I’d focus on volume and stop posting results.One bad run of 60 odd games and here I am whining about bad luck and poor results.Part of me is trying to be a bit more…”baller” is the word the forum kiddies use I believe.I detest arrogance, but sometimes think my lack of confidence in myself and my game doesn’t help me when running like crap.I’ve won thousand of dollars playing sng’s,I’m still up at least a few hundred this month on Party, and yet I still feel that I need to get the tiny sample of stats Sharkscope shows for me into the black to stop me feeling like a fraud.I know that’s silly but it’s just how I feel.

I did at least cash in the last two games of the night, even if that meant staying up until nearly 1am despite being up early today.I have felt far better for not staying up way too late recently and last night aside, I don’t intend to slip into an unhealthy late night/early morning routine again.

Righty,looking after Nacho tonight and I’m off out tomorrow evening.Back soon…

Sharky Curse...

I had been toodling along nicely at the Party $22's, with my roll there peaking at $2628 about a week or so ago.On checking my Stars sharkscope stats ( finally over the $9k profit mark) I noticed Party sng results are now covered.Sadly for my poker ego they begun coverage just as I hit that $2628 peak and have only recorded my swing down to $2200 and back to $2430.

My luck last night at the $22's reminded me of the 1000 game almost break even streak I suffered at Stars a couple of months back.Thankfully,having been through a streak like that,I've developed a far thicker poker skin and appreciate that nights as bad as last night are part of grinding turbos.Apart from a couple of hands, I felt I played well, which is all you can ever do when the 2 outers and lost flips are piling up.I even came back from 25 chips on one table only to bubble when my 22 fell to 86.

Tonight I'm off to Hampden to watch Rangers v Falkirk in the league cup semi-final.It's cold,wet and miserable here in Glasgow tonight and hopefully my team can rattle in a few goals.

I also intend to play some more live poker soon as I didn't play at a poker club or casino at all last year.In truth I always seem to feel like a total poker newbie whenever I've played live,never having a clue when it's my turn,what the stack sizes are or even who is supposed to turn over their cards first at showdown.I'm a lazy sod and having it all worked out online for me means I really don't pay any attention to the workings of the game.I do wish it was possible to smoke da herb during live games though! I rarely play online without a puff and find without it I get too keen to get involved,tilt more easily and generally find it tougher to tune into the flow of the game.

Righty,back soon..

Take it to the bank

Bloody bankers.I went into the Clydesdale bank the other day to transfer funds in order to clear my car loan.When the lady at my bank said there would be a £24 charge, I opted to take out the cash and pop into the Bank of Scotland to pay the money directly into the loan company account.I queued at the BOS for ten minutes before hearing the magic words,”Cashier number 3 please”. Thirty seconds later I’m on my way round to the Royal Bank,having been informed by the BOS desk monkey that the loan account was held there and not by the BOS.

At the RBS there was one teller and a long queue.The old customer at the serving window obviously wasn’t on his lunch hour and every time he seemed to be done,he scratched his head,Columbo style,and came up with yet another “just one last thing” that needed dealt with.I finally get served, only to be told the loan account is with the BOS afterall.Gritting my teeth I head back to the BOS,queue again,get sent to “Cashier number 4 “ this time ,only to be told I need to go downstairs and queue again to pay in any amount over £2k.Aghhhhhh!

This was after nearly getting into a fight with some dumb feck motorist who turned right at the traffic lights without indicating and nearly ran me over.Apparently because the lights were green he didn’t need to signal.Words were had!

Later that evening someone who has known me for a while now asked me something which took me completely aback and made me realise they don’t know me at all.It didn't really sink in at the time, but it has now and I wont be going back for more until my anger abates.Nuff said!

I was gutted for Bullmeister the other night too after watching his team,Burnley,come within 2 minutes of a cup final against Spurs after coming back from being 4-1 down in the first leg.Football can be so damn heartbreaking at times.

On the poker front I've played a few more $22's at Party since my last post and last night I tackled my first Mtt in ages when I fired up the Party $33,$6k gtd with just over 200 runners.Bottom line is that I finished 23rd after I shoved over a loose donkeys raise with 1010,he called with A5 and of course rivered the Ace.

It was now 1.50am and I didn't feel like another 30-45 minute sng so I fired up a $50nl cash game on Full Tilt and doubled my money winning a flip ( yes,it does happen) with QQ v AK.I'm still down about $315 on FT for the month after my shocking run at the $26,45 player games.I mentioned that blogger poker pro Amatay had offered to stake me at these games, but I'd feel terrible about losing someone elses cash on a nasty downswing and actually made a small deposit at FT to keep me afloat there for now.I may try a few more $26's later after I've picked Nacho up shortly.

Ok,back soon...

Brit Blogger game on Friday!

As the numbers have fallen from a peak of 39 at one point, Mr Cloud and I have decided to move the Brit Blogger game to Friday from now on.It's still 9pm UK time,still a turbo and still only $5.50 to enter.Everyone is welcome to play and you'll find it under the Private lobby in the tournament section at Full Tilt.( It has a wee "t" for turbo next to it)

Aghhh I hit the publish button before I'd finished rambling on.It must be the excitement of watching Burnley playing Spurs in the cup...

It's been a good week so far.I stopped for a steak pub dinner on the way home last night and treated myself to a fine pasta takeaway from the local Italian place tonight.I also called the ex Mrs A re taking the dog tomorrow night and Step A answered the phone.She apologised for the way she spoke to me just before Xmas.I didn't go into details, ( Dec 22nd post) but she told me to "fuck off" and that I wasn't anything to do with her anymore.Pretty hurtful stuff, but teens will be teens and I was happy to accept her apology.I'm looking forward to giving her lifts to her Dads and back at the weekend again too as it's the only chance I get to spend any time with her these days.

I did hit the tables late on last night after watching the Little Chef thing and the poker.( I was still in bed for 12.30 though!)Back in December I mentioned trying to focus on volume rather than results and with that in mind I'm no longer going to post results here in each post.It makes my focus too short term and my stupid poker ego leaves me not wanting to play if I get off to a good start, or keen to make up losses if I begin badly.I worked out that I'm running at about 25-30% roi over only a few hundred games at the Party $22's and occasional $33.I didn't run well last night and I expect that will drop a bit over time and volume.For now though I'm going to assume I'm making $4 per game there and if I play 11 games I've made about $44 regardless of the actual results.Hopefully this will help me get more volume in and make more money!

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Historic Day! Will You be Watching?

It may have seemed like it's been a long time coming, but history will finally be made today.Millions will be eagerly watching events unfold wherever they are in the world on this important date and like the moon landings,Diana dying, or the Twin Towers attack,people everywhere will no doubt always remember witnessing..... Bullmeister and Acornman mulling around in the background during the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game being shown tonight on Sky Sports 2 at 10pm!

In a reoccurring theme I've not played much poker since my last post.I did play a couple more $26 ,45 player games on FT and although I'm sure they can be very lucrative,they can also be pretty soul sucking when running like crap.The s-man was over last night,this time without his PS3 and headed home after a fine evening watching Stallone in Cobra.I remember loving that film as a kid ( 14 when it came out) and enjoyed it again despite the crap 80's rock power ballads! ( no Whitesnake or anything decent!)

I've managed to resist those Super Turbo bankroll suckers on Full Tilt recently but hit a couple of $14's before bed,bubbling one and being sucked out on in the other game.I did at least get to bed for 12.30 and will be trying to stick to a reasonable bedtime from now on.Whenever I've been off on annual leave etc,I always promise myself I'll smoke less and get to bed earlier!I think I have to stick to that to keep my mental health in good order as I had some pretty dark thoughts running through my head just before Xmas.

Righty,to the poker and I've now begun checking some of my sng exit hands using SNGET ( sit n go software I mentioned in my last post) to determine if my exit push/calls are correct.I'd always been a little scared of the tech/maths stuff when using these tools,especially as I used to play exclusively 18 player games where the payout structure differs to the 9 player games to complicate matters further.In actual fact it was quite simple to input the figures involved,adjust the villains range and discover if my move ( push or call) had a positive or negative expected value.

When I first began playing sng's I'd have looked at the example hand given and used an odds calculator to work out how A7o/s ( off suit) plays against the villains K9s (suited).Now I've been playing a little longer I instinctively push/call based on previous patterns,stack sizes,image ( villains and mine) and a host of other factors.For the hand below I didn't say to myself,"Aha he's pushing with about the top 23% of hands,a call here would be slightly +ev".I do get a rough picture in my head of the type of hands I feel are being pushed into me and then try and guage the strength of my own hand in comparison before making my decision.

You can't do these during play but the idea is that over time,with enough practice,it will be easier to recognise a good push/call from a bad one.I was relieved to read Manhaton1te ( one of the very best 18 player low-mid stakes sng players) write on a forum that he just plays by feel and doesn't use software tools.At the end of the day it's not the tools themselves but the information ( hand ranges ) we put in which really makes the difference.I think I have a reasonable grasp on the push/call end game, but I'm always willing to learn and SNGET software etc can only help me improve my roi.

In the example below from a Party $33 turbo,the villain shoves his K9 sooted from the button on the bubble.Nobody likes being on the end of a "donkey call" but there is definetly a fine art to calling light at the right times too.I felt it was a close one when he shoved and the main reason I called was because I felt I was slightly ahead of his range and I would have been in a fairly weak position if I'd folded.The button would have had 3340 compared to my 1640 ( and I had another 200 to pay in the small blind next) and the implied collusion which often sees the shorty picked on could have seen me exit quite soon.I'd probably have had to shove any two cards into the big stack on the next hand if I'd folded.




The hands highlighted in purple using Poker Stove are my best ( conservative) guess at the hands he would be pushing into me.




Using that hand range I can then give the button player this range using the SNGET tool and it then tells me the expected value of folding or calling in this spot.



It looks like my call was slightly +ev here.

Ok,I hope that wasn't too dry and boring! Thanks for reading and if you disagree with any of the above ,feel free to comment and I'll edit as required if you're right!

Back soon...

The Matrix

I didn't get a lot of poker played last night,however I did discover I had SNGET on my lappy.( a sit n go piece of software) It's mainly for calculating equity using ICM ( Indpendent Chip Model) and also has an excellent interactive quiz to test push/calling skills around the bubble.In all honesty I'm not a maths guy at all.I play about with push/calling ranges on Poker Stove, but I don't spend hours calculating if moves are slightly + or -ev in every situation..I did feel good at getting 17/20 on "hard" mode until I did another quiz and was rated "horrible"!

The good news is that I can see why I scored that way.In one example ( set it up to show 4 players left with top 3 paying) the bigstack ( 9k stack) had folded and I was on the button with 4.5k holding 97o/s.The small blind had aprox 2k and the big blind had a similar stack to mine.I was given the info that the big blind was calling with 20% of hands and the blinds were 600/1200.I chose to shove and obviously if the villain in the big blind is calling as wide as 20% then my move was slightly -ev and my answer was wrong.

I can't argue with that if the big blind is calling with the top 20% of hands on this occasion,however even if his vpip ( the percentage of time he voluntarily enters the pot) is higher than 20%, in a real game that doesn't mean that he's automatically going call with that range in this specific spot.It does mean exactly that in the quiz as it tells you precisely the % the villian calls with in this particular hand.

I think game flow and stack sizes are just as important as cards and ranges.In my usual game with a tight image, if the bb was a calling station donkey I may fold my 97, but if I thought he had any clue,I'd shove here all day, because if the shorty folds, the BB is going to call far tighter than 20% as he knows the shorty will be blinded out soon anyway and he wants to survive.

I hope that makes sense! Another example of a game flow situation came about in the only $22 I played last night.There were still 7 left at 300/600 and I had just over my starting stack having played one hand and with stats of 3% vpip and 3% pfr.I shoved all in UTG ( first to act) with A9c.I did expect not to be called too widely due to my tight image and I wasn't overjoyed at having to shove in this spot,however I was about to lose most of my fold equity and simply couldn't afford to wait for a more +ev spot.Luck is a huge factor too here.I could have run into a better hand and wondered if my shove was rash.As it was I won that pot uncontested and ended up winning the sng.

I'm not rubbishing these tools and software at all.I intend to do plenty more bubble quizes and would highly recommend them to anyone looking to improve their sng end game.The lite version of SNGET is free ( including quizzes) and Poker Stove is free too.

Rosie had recommended the Matrix sng format on Full Tilt and as a wee change I fired up an $11 game to try it out.You play 4 sngs at the same time against the same people.There is still a 1/2/3 payout although some of the prize pool is dedicated to an overall leaderboard for the 4 games.I crashed out of two games early after losing flips and nearly gave up at that point.The games are standard speed ( zzzzzz!)and I didn't hold out much hope.Luckily I managed to win both of the remaining games ( great fun owning the same guys on the bubble of each game!)and gained enough points to win overall too.

I may say I play poker for the money, but winning that $27 was far more satisfying than the quick $100 ( for winning $22) I won earlier!



Ps Go on the sheepshaggers.Aberdeen 4-2 up against the mutants with 3 minutes left.After our win yesterday mayybe this title race isn't over, despite our off-field financial worries....

Gies a swatch...

Start time is 9pm Sunday....

If there was a coughing and spluttering Olympic event, I reckon I would have taken the gold medal over the last week.I ended up staying off work and spent most of it watching crap tv and playing just a little poker.I also scored some lovely solid late in the week and the brain fuzz aint helping me write this post!

The s-man was over last night for a lengthy session of Fallout 3 on the PS3.The game is huge and quite unlike any I've ever played before with it's interactive FPS style.We had a good laugh too,reminiscing about our early days of scoring weed in shady pubs where the main dude thought nothing of whipping out a set of scales and doing the deal on the table in front of him.( having a shotgun under the table probably helped him feel at ease!)

I played a few $16's when the s-man left and finished up about $150 from 9 games.It's not been a bad month so far at the felt, although as usual I've been far too lazy to put in any real volume.I did have a go at the $26,45 man games on Full Tilt and ran horribly,going 15 games before I finally cashed.( and even those cashes were a frustrating 3rd and 4th) I'm not done with them yet though and will give them another go soon.

Apologies to Matty and Betfare ( bloggy player,not the site)re moving the Brit Blogger game from Sunday to Friday as it didn't happen this week as planned.I'll email the guy that sets them up again after Sundays game and hopefully we can relaunch the Brit Blogger game on Fridays and get a few more players.


Dinner,fitba and poker tonight.Oh and there's also still time to win more on the lottery ( 3 winning tickets from 10 last week!) using Mr Edge's fine new system.No idea how it works but it's seems to be profitable.Maybe I just ran good for once...


Loved this wee clip from "Chewin' the Fat".For any non Scots here this link from the urban dictionary may help...

Still at Deaths Door...

I had intended on going back to work today but after waking up sweating,with the bed soaking, ( dreams of Amatays woman,Kathy Liebert maybe?!) and after endless spluttering with a beast of a cough,I decided man flu had got the better of me and phoned in sick.

I've been sick all weekend and as a result haven't played too much poker.The games I have played have gone reasonably well and I'm quite pleased with the start I've made to the month.After my 5 in a row streak at Party,I was reluctant to play there as my warped logic said the chances of winning the 6th were unlikely.I did manage to come back from a 350 shortstack when my 84sooooted cracked Aces, but it wasn't to be.I did at least manage 2nd in the only other game I've played there since Thursday.

I'm finding the HUD on Pokertracker 3 really helps a ton with my decision making.In sngs it's quite possible to get an idea of how a villain is playing from quite a small sample size.For example,even with only 10 hands played,if the villain has played most of the them it's almost certain he's a donkey.

On one occasion a loose ( 46% vpip /26% PFR**) button player made a 3 bb raise when folded to him.I had 1010 in the small blind,shoved all in and he folded.Obviously anyone opening from the button when folded to them has to be on a wider range, but the HUD stats which showed the villain had played nearly half of his hands and raised a large % of them,meant I was pretty sure I was ahead.He folded that time although I would have been glad if he'd called with a weaker hand.

The hand below is a spot where 99/100 I raise and would be happy to get it in preflop.On this occasion I had over 100 hands on Player 3 ( initial raiser),it's very early on and he raises over a limper from early position.He had put money in the pot voluntarily 6% of the time over those 100 hands and raised 6% preflop too.He was playing many tables and his raise just screamed KK/AA/Monster hand to me.The result of course doesn't matter....grrrrrrrrrrrrr!



Here's one that's certainly not standard and may even have been a poor shove by me.Hmm for some reason the hand replayer as used above didn't split the pot or allocate the sidepot.Here's a link to the hand to make it easier to view.I've provided the raw hand history for anyone reading at work or without access to pokerhand.org.

***** Hand History for Game 7697101360 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $22 USD Buy-in Trny: 43831824 Level: 6 Blinds(300/600) - Sunday, January 11, 20:12:11 ET 2009
Table Speed #1330290 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 6: Hero ( 1,640 )
Seat 9: KaraDani ( 2,495 )
Seat 8: PartyLovesMe ( 7,500 )
Seat 5: gharibo89 ( 6,835 )
Seat 3: golf147111 ( 230 )
Seat 7: Tight Multi-tabler ( 1,300 )
Trny: 43831824 Level: 6
Blinds(300/600)
** Dealing down cards **
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 5h Jc ]
PartyLovesMe folds
KaraDani folds
golf147111 is all-In [230]
gharibo89 folds
Hero is all-In [1,340]
Tight Multi-tabler folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, Ks, Ah ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2d ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qh ]
Hero shows [ 5h, Jc ]a pair of Kings.
golf147111 shows [ 8c, Jd ]a pair of Kings.
Hero wins 1,780 chips from the side pot 1 with a pair of Kings.
golf147111 wins 345 chips from the main pot with a pair of Kings.
Hero wins 345 chips from the main pot with a pair of Kings.


In this hand I'm in the small blind with 1640 chips.( 1340 after paying the 300 small blind).The blinds have reached 300/600 and there are still 6 of us left,including a very shortstack who had just lost the last hand on a suckout.The shorty stuck in his last 230 chips preflop,the bigstack button folded and the action was on me with J5.Now the big blind was the same tighty ( 6% vpip/6%pfr)multi-tabler I laid down AK to in the hand above.He had not played a hand at all in this game and was probably also aware of my tight stats.I reckoned there was a good chance he would fold leaving me headsup in the hand against the shorty who I guessed would be shoving whatever hand he had been dealt.The pot was so big ( and I was on just over 2bb) that I felt it was a reasonable move at the time.

We split the pot,I gained about 700 chips and went on to come 2nd.Good move or lucky donkery?Hmmmmm!

Ok,time to go and see if I can force myself to eat anything.It's not easy having man flu....( not that I make a fuss!)

5 in a row...

Today is my last day off work and I've been struck down by man flu.Grrrr!

To the poker and for the first time all week I really got stuck into it last night and played a total of 30 $22 turbs on Party.( 3 tabling) When I was last off work I pushed too hard at the felt,played too many tables and ran like crap.I suppose fear of failure and being a lazy git have meant that I've had a far more relaxed attitude to the grind this week.

The fear of failing may also simply be down to a slightly weak ,wimpish attitude.Even if I'm running well at the $16's ( 18 player turbs)I still only cash just over 1/4 times aprox.This means dealing with the pain of soul sucking beats 3/4 of the time.( and even cashing 1/4 doesn't always mean a win!)For all I hope I come across as quite laidback about my poker,I detest losing with a passion and hate the mental pain and anguish I feel when I don't take a turb down due to a suckout.

I can usually gee myself up when I'm down and that's why when I've run poorly at Stars over a long session, I push on and play more, because if my game is good, I'm going to profit in the end.I've realised now that although that is the case,the end isn't going to be that night and that when running very very badly sometimes ,it's ok to accept a losing night and go to bed!( I usually realise this around 6.30am!) The nature of poker means sadly it's not possible to will yourself to victory.You can only focus on staying on your best game.

Anyways here's how it went down last night to give you a flavour of a night at the turbs and obviously to brag about how it finished!

Game 1 : Shoved A10 (sb into bb) into KK at 200/400.Out.
Game 2 : Shoved QJ ( sb into bb again!) into AK at 200/400.Out. ( v same player both times!)
Game 3 : 1010 AIPF ( All in preflop) v Ak.lost race.Out
Game 4 : Shoved A5 into KK at 200/400.Out
Game 5: Took it down baby!First.
Game 6: Shoved K5sooted ,three handed into 77 at 400/800.Lost.Came 3rd.
Game 7: Shoved A3,three handed,called by KJ.Lost.Came 3rd.
Game 8: Called a shove with A6sooted.Six handed with blinds at 300/600.Lost to raisers QK.Out.
Game 9: Shoved A10 into Aces ,Five handed at 300/600.Out.
Game 10: Still eight left at 300/600.Called shorty shove for 600 with A7 and lost to Q10.Next hand AIPF with A9 v 66 and K6.Out.
Game 11:Raised with KQs.Flat called by one player.Flop Kd 6s 10s.Money in,he shows KK,I don't improve.Out.
Game 12:AK v QK AIPF.King on flop,Queen on turn.Out.
Game 13: Stacks: Me 1170,fishy idiot 2500,bigstack 10k,medstack 5.4k.bb is 200/400.Idiot min raises and I shove over with A9.He calls with K10 and hits King.Out on bubble.
Game 14: AK loses to 1010 AIPF.Fair enough!
Game 15:QQ V 77 and A10 AIPF.7 on river.Out.
Game 16: KK V 77 AIPF.7 on flop this time.Out.
Game 17:KK V AA.Ace and King on flop.Out.
Game 18:99 v 88 AIPF.Money in on 679 flop.10 on turn.Out and fuckin' ouch again!
Game 19:Shove A9h and lose to KJs AIPF.
Game 20: Took 2nd place.Yeeeeha!
Game 21:Shoved 88 into QQ on bubble against other shortstack.Out.
Game 22: Free flop with K2 in bb.Flop 2s 10h 2c.check/called flop.Turn Ace clubs.Checked out of position hoping he had hit Ace.He checked behind.River 9c.Money in.I let him hit a runner runner flush with K10c.Grrrrr!
Game 23:Shoved A4 into A10 ,three handed.3rd place.
Game 24:Took it down baby! First.
Game 25:Three left.I shove 1010,both call.K10 for bigstack and JQ for other fish.Flop A 4 6.Looking good...Turn King.Took 2nd though as I had more chips than JQ fish at start of hand.
Game 26:A5 shoved HU.Called by K8c.Two Kings on flop.2nd place.
Game 27:Took it down baby!Revenge v the same player HU.My K5s beat his J7 in last hand.First!
Game 28:Took it down baby!My A6 gets lucky v JJ HU and I win.First.
Game 29:Took it down baby! My J10s beats 99 HU v same player as game 28.First.
Game 30:Took it down baby! A2 beats K19 HU.First.
Game 31:Took it down baby! AQ beats A5.First.

I've never, ever taken down 5 in a row before!I actually thought it was only 3 but filtering the finish times to be consecutive gives me five and I'll take that!

At my lowest point I was down $560 on where I ended up by 4am.Crazy old game.I was helped greatly by running hot over those last few games,by the HUD which makes playing 3 tables so much easier and by this excellent 2+2 sng link that Snake_eyes posted on the Raisetheriver forum.Reading the part about roi's gave me a real confidence boost and they way I was running ,I needed it!

Ok,I'm off to sneeze my way into the weekend.Gl at the tables..

Cashed out: Gulp!

I didn't expect to post today, but I've finally taken the plunge and cashed out enough to pay off the remaining three years of my car loan and as it's my largest ever cashout ( aprox £6.5k or nearly $10k)I thought it was worth a post.Thanks to Mark over at Pokerpains for the excellent advice posted recently re exchange rates.

In some respects I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I don't have enough gamble in me to have used my roll to try and speculate to accumulate a little more.With $13k I could have had a proper go at the MTT scene or played far more $55 + sngs.If I was 21that's probably the route I would have gone down, but in all honesty if I blew $13k playing higher,I don't think I'd ever have forgiven myself.Continuing to play mainly $16's on Stars and $22/$33's on Party was never going to require a $13k bankroll and leaving it online earning no interest seemed daft too.

I've not played that much since the start of the year and have still managed to get back to even on Stars and make a few hundred on Party this month so far.My new bankroll is probably still fine for the levels I'm at and if I can ( hopefully) keep winning I'll still have enough to pay for things like my car insurance/season ticket etc in a few months.

Ok,new bankroll stats are : Pokerstars $1250 ( - $7k cashout),Party $2198 ( - $1.5k),Full Tilt $167 ( - $500),Bet365 £4( - £200),Ladbrokes $0 ( - $417),Pokerroom $108.

Total $3723

After yesterdays post pic I thought I'd better even things up with one for the ladies.Back soon...

No Hot Dates Here....

I've calmed down considerably since my last post.Rangers won at the weekend and our rivals could only draw which always helps my mood.I think I've also realised that my ability to grind through beats playing turbos is directly related to how tired I feel.

The S-man was over on Saturday night and this time we completed the excellent "Resistance 2:Fall of Man".I had played a few more turbos on Stars before the s-man arrived and ran like crap, with only a couple of cashes late on saving me from having another nasty night there.

On Sunday my cousin was over and later I watched Phil Taylor take his 14th World Darts Championship after his 7-1 drubbing of poor old Barney.He averaged 109 in the final and the result never looked in doubt.

At 9pm I fought my way through a tough Brit Blogger field ( never easy getting past the Hairy Gymnast!) and lost a quick heads up battle to Betfare who took it down again.Congrats Sir!

Jeez this post is boring.I've had a look through Pokertracker 3 for interesting hands, but they're all boring too!

Still, at least I have online dating to keep me amused, although for some reason they rejected my first application..



Thanks to the s-man for emailing me that one!

Ok,thanks for reading.As mentioned I'm off work until next Monday.Back sometime next week probably....

Focked Up

I could slap myself today after my donkery last night at the tables.I made a good start on Party,3-4 tabling and winning a couple of hundred dollars quite quickly at the $22's.I also enjoyed watching the PDC World darts and nearly jumped out my seat when Barney hit that nine dart finish.( darting perfection,see clip!) Hopefully it will be a Barney v Taylor final again and another classic like last year.



I could have gone to bed happy with my evenings profit, but volume is the key and I logged into Stars and fired up a few $16's.After a decent start to '09 on Stars,I was hoping I could build on that, however the poker gods had other ideas and before long all the lost races and flips left me pissing into the wind again.I managed to pull back a hundred or so and should have gone to bed at that point.

Instead I fired up some more and allowed all my frustrations to boil over.I was well up at Party.How dare this joke of a site ( Stars) keep pounding me into the dirt like this! Maybe it was greed too which pushed me over the edge a bit.I always go on about seeing my bankroll total figure as not being set in stone.The turbo swings mean even a winning player will always have peaks and troughs on an overall upwards looking graph.I think I'd mentally banked all my winnings over the last few days and was in no mood to run badly and see my overall profit figure reduced.

I had decided over Xmas that I am going to pay off my car loan with poker profits and that most of it will come from my Stars account.( 6.5k from Stars,1k from Party and another 1k from Ladbrokes/Ipoker is the rough plan, leaving me just over 4k online)

Several times last night I had my finger hovering over the submit button on the cashier page ready to remove every last cent from my account there.Instead I donked off about $150 at $16,$27 and $38's to leave me about $300 down on Stars for the night.Lowlights were raising with A3 from the button and insta-calling a shove from the bb and getting it in with KQ v several raises in a multi-way pot.Add a couple more horror plays like that and you get the picture.

As mentioned I was up a couple of hundred from Party and I've gone to bed before and slept soundly having lost a lot more than $100 over a session.I don't tilt often though, and I think knowing that made me even more angry at myself for letting my emotions slip.Nobody says its a fair game and that so-called justice will prevail.I know that and yet I played like a whiney self-pitying asshoooooole.( also enjoyed watching "Meet the Fockers" again after the darts!)

On the upside I didn't start four tabling the $1000 turbs and when I do play the $38's again, I'll hopefully manage to confound a few of the "huge donk" notes I'm sure the regulars will have on me! Yeah,it was all meta-game and range balancing tactics....

Apparently there's a programme on tv soon about who the tightest person in Britain is.I reckon we could all learnt from Gareth.There's a man who knows how to spoil the lady in his life.Good to see that she was suitably grateful.....

"Some of the other stars of the programme are Gareth Taylor, a farmer in his mid-50s from Yorkshire, who bought his wife, Wendy, her first ever Christmas present - from him at least - last year. It was a chainsaw. He said their fuel bills were getting so big that she could make herself useful by chopping down trees to put on the fire. Her response, 'I was so stunned I didn't know what to say. But I was a bit chuffed too. I've never ever got a present from him before.' "

Super New Year....

With most of my friends being too distant,attached or flued up,I was left to bring in the new year with a couple of beers n smokes in the company of Nacho, an Irish guy,a Canadian and a German.It was great fun until just after midnight when I grew bored of their banter,knocked them all out, and took the $22 turbo down on Party...

I moved to Stars,took 3rd in a $16 and then took down a $27,18 man whilst supping my beer and chatting on the phone.

I remembered the US/Canadian blogger game,The Mookie,was on at 2am and decided a wee social game would be a decent way to round things off before bed.It's a $10 mtt and I bubbled the final table after shoving A9 from the button and running into rockets.Good chat and good times though!

Yesterday evening I was over at my parents for dinner before the s-man came over with his PS3 for an evening of "COD 5 Nazi zombies" and some more "Resistance 2:Fall of Man".I used to love Half-Life on the PS2 and didn't think much they could improve much on it, but Resistance 2 is simply phenomenal.One day I may even have to buy my own PS3...!

After the s-man left I played a $33 at Party and took it down before hitting the sack.I've had Pokertracker 3 for weeks now and have finally been able to get the HUD ( heads up display) working for my sngs.The stats part of PT still seems screwed up when it comes to reporting sng profits and I'm not sure how to fix it.It shows me as coming 3rd in that $33 I took down and even postion "0" for some games!! Very odd.Still,at least the HUD works and I also have a proper record of every hand played.

I'm not going to review 2008 other than to say the trip to Manchester for the UEFA Cup final,some fantastic weekends and the Full Tilt Million Dollar cash game jaunt in Sept were the highlights for me.

As "super" seems to be the in word with the forum kiddies ( super thin bet,super early,super feckin' everything)I'm off to have a super day.....