Show me the money!

It looks like I'll finally be moving up in stakes,buying a larger house and trading my Focus ST in for an Aston Martin DB9!I may even run another "guess the villains hand" competition and double the prize money!

"I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the
assets and Capital valued at £12,540,000.00 Million Pounds left behind
by my client.I seek your consent to present you as the next of
kin to the deceased since you have the same last names, so that the
proceeds of this account can be paid to you."

I'm not getting too carried away though.It's only 1567500 buy-ins at $16 and variance is a biatch at the moment....

I didn't start playing the Bloggerment until after the incredible Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer.It was a truly stunning display of tennis from both players and Nadals five set win has to go down as the greatest game of all time.Not only was the quality of tennis sublime,the incredible resilience and spirit shown by both men made it a match which will live long in my memory.

Nadals after match comments when asked if he felt down after losing two match points in the fourth set were telling and could easily be applied to the poker table."When I was sitting down, I just say: I am playing well. I am doing well. I am with very good positive attitude. I played with a very positive attitude all the time, fighting a lot." He added ""I just focus on every point," he said. "Is possible to think too much. If you think too much, you not gonna play well. I just focus on next point."

Thanks to the nine players who turned out to play last nights Britbloggerment game and congrats to Wadhead for taking it down.My own exit was typical of how I'm running at the tables.My JJ was rivred by 88 and that was that!

I had warmed up by four tabling $6.50's and after the Bloggy I moved back up to $16 and played five games.Every hand is a new hand, but it's getting hard not to see the kind of run I'm on as a downswing and reading forum posts about 1000 game downswings or breakeven runs do not fill me with much joy! I did win the last one I played but endured more beats and suckouts.39 soooted busting my KK and having my 66 busted by 68 ( 8 on turn) were last nights biggest junk kickers.

In light of how badly I'm running I've decided not to set any lofty goals for July.Obviously I want to push on and make as much as possible but I'll start by aiming to break my Stars roll back through the $7k mark and hitting $8k profit on Sharkscope.( at Stars)

I did finish my night by playing four $7.50 super turbos ( 300 chips,3 min blinds) on Full Tilt and winning two of them.I may have a go at four tabling them at some point.Hmmmm.

Ok,that's plenty for a Monday.Back later in the week...

Arsenal sign Messi!

Someone sent me that one during the week and it brought a grin to my face.

I'm watching Nadal lead Federer by two sets at the Wimbledon final so this will be a short post.Thanks to everyone who turned out to play the Euroblogger last night and congrats to Mair who continues her Bloggy hot streak and took down her 3rd bloggy game in a row.I made 3rd for $10 and then continued 4 tabling the $6.50's.I'd stepped down because I want to truly get a grip on 4 tabling before trying again at the $16's.Perhaps if I was 10 years younger I'd be 8-12 tabling with ease.Maybe rolling herbacious smokes slows me down a bit.Whatever the case I did ok last night and turned a small profit.

Ok,thanks to all who took the time to read over the hand I posted on July 2nd and left an answer.I can reveal that my $10 is safe in my moth ridden wallet!

Here is the hand in question...

For anyone who missed it ,I was asking which hand the fishy tilty villain called me with...And no I couldn't believe it either!! Perhaps he thought I was betting a weak spade flush draw and he was making the hero call of his life!

PokerStars Game #18516067948: Tournament #94114633, $15+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/01 - 18:27:00 (ET)
Table '94114633 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: NuttyProff (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: zagga (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: master_fp (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: paco02 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: Totò 17 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Supachico (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: zeze1978 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: tof17 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: M.S. Hanson (1500 in chips)
zagga: posts small blind 10
master_fp: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Qh Ad]
paco02: calls 20
Totò 17: calls 20
Supachico: folds
zeze1978: folds
tof17: folds
M.S. Hanson: calls 20
NuttyProff: folds
zagga: calls 10
master_fp: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah Qs 4s]
zagga: bets 80
master_fp: folds
paco02: calls 80
Totò 17: calls 80
M.S. Hanson: folds
*** TURN *** [Ah Qs 4s] [6h]
zagga: bets 240
paco02: calls 240
Totò 17: folds
*** RIVER *** [Ah Qs 4s 6h] [9h]
zagga: bets 520
paco02: calls 520
*** SHOW DOWN ***
zagga: shows [Qh Ad] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
paco02: mucks hand
zagga collected 1860 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1860 | Rake 0
Board [Ah Qs 4s 6h 9h]
Seat 1: NuttyProff (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: zagga (small blind) showed [Qh Ad] and won (1860) with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 3: master_fp (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: paco02 mucked [Jd Tc]
Seat 5: Totò 17 folded on the Turn

Ok,I'm off to watch the rest of the tennis.Don't forget the Britbloggerment is on tonight...

Game Set and Match...

Big thanks to Stephenrhall,Hammerheid and Copa1982 for joining Mr Cloud and me for the Euroblogger game.It was certainly the fastest Blogger game ever as Mr Cloud won in about twelve minutes after my AK soooted was no match for his KK.Don't forget to register for tonights BritBloggerment on Stars...



Before the Euro game I played in the $20, Pocket Fives Open Mtt and crashed out around 300th from 1100 when I open shoved a couple of sooted cards when folded to me and lost to someone hero calling with A10.

I fired up a few $16's and found I'm still in the same rut I was in previously.I had Aces four times last night over 24 games and had them busted each time for example.I did manage a slight comeback towards the end of the session and only finished $6 down overall.I took a break for a while around 1am after I found myself playing one particular game on full blown chip spewing monkey tilt mode.I don't tilt very often and I suppose at least I was self-aware enough to realise what I was doing and take a step back.

After my 24 games at Stars I fired up a couple of $22's at Party and failed to cash in either.I've mentioned before that Sharkscope doesn't work for Party Poker.If anyone does know of a site for tracking sng results at Party please let me know.

I've been reading a few poker forums as usual this week and I've noticed that the practice of staking seems to be becoming more popular and I have to say I've no idea what the appeal is!I know I'm a nit when it comes to dealing with bankroll management,however surely if you're a winning player you wouldn't need anyone to stake you for low stakes games.If you're not winning then why would anyone want to stake you at all?

The only way I can see staking being useful is for a winning player wanting to take a shot at a higher level.The other part of these threads which makes me shake my head is the feedback part.Even if you backed that winning player and he won 10/10 sngs at a higher level than usual, I don't think that proves anything at all about his/her game.I realise many people treat it as a bit of fun and a way of helping build the community spirit on forums and I'm not knocking that at all.It just doesn't make much sense to me!

This afternoon I'm watching the Federer v Nadal French Open Final ( Nadal is romping it so far) and later there's more Euro 2008 football.

On the subject of football it seems Rangers are on the verge of resigning Kenny Miller from Derby County and I've never been more angry about a signing in my life.He played for Rangers,moved to Wolves and then did the unthinkable for a former Rangers player,he joined Celtc.I was at celtc park when the wee turncoat scored against us and happily thumped the celtc badge on his shirt and there's no way I want to see him in a blue jersey ever again.If he was actually any good as a player that may have softened the blow, but the fact is he would struggle to hit a cows arse with a banjo let alone score many goals."You can stick your Kenny Miller up your arse" Mr Smith.Don't do it!!

Ok,that's all for today.Time to chill out...

Break-point

Just a short post today as I'm exhausted from not sleeping well.I went to bed around 4am and ended up getting back up and trying again around 7am ish and finally dropping off.I had dropped Mrs A off at her work around 6ish last night and she's still not home yet today.I had to leave the front door unlocked as I wasn't sure if she'd taken her key or not and I wasn't about to phone her to check.No more to say on that just now but if the sleepless nights continue I'm going to the Docs for something to help knock me out.

I did enjoy a laugh playing poker last night with the San Jose Salmon and the s-man at Pokerstars and made the money in a few turbo sng's.I was rivered a few times too,the worst of which was shoving from the small blind with 88 and being called by the Big Blind donkey and his 78.( 7 on flop and turn).As usual I had no problem with the donkey actually calling ( that's why he's a donkey afterall!)but was just annoyed at my own rotten luck.

I did play a little more Full Tilt $200nl ( full ring) and made $30 by playing extremely tight but aggressive poker.( the wee owl next to my name on Pokertracker backed that up).I was $20 down at one point but a raise with AK and then firing two bullets on a J 10 5 flop ( gutshot and two overcards) won me a wee pot and put me in profit.

San Jose Salmon mentioned playing for the buzz and there were certainly a few heart thumping moments at that table.I worry about that a little as I want to play good poker and not chase the buzz of a big pot.At $50nl and even $100 to an extent I'm happy or sad to win or lose a buy-in but I'm generally detached enough not to get too emotional either way and I think that helps my game.

Ok,off to finish watching Federer v Nadal in the Wimbledon final.Seems a long time since I used to batter a tennis ball off the wall of our old house taking turns to be Borg and McEnroe.

Don't forget to register for tonights Britblogger game on Stars.All welcome.See previous post for details.

Oh and hats off to Mark at Plant Gong for a real laugh out loud post.Spot on too.Bad beat me and yer getting banjoed!