Bashing Donks

Despite my last post about taking chances, I have stepped down and played some $11 sngs on Party.I may end up cashing out on Stars and moving some $ to Party to allow me to play the $22's again without fear of busting.I've had to make a few adjustments as the play at the $11 level is truly awful.For example when continuation betting with a hand like AK on a flop like Q 8 3 ,I'll bet 2/3 to 3/4 of the pot to try and take it down to try and avoid donks calling all the way to the river with hands like 44.Bets are more of a blunt instrument at the $11's and you have to bash the donks over the head with those bets to get them to do what you want.

Away from the poker I'm glad the World Cup is finally underway.I'm proud to be Scottish + British and as I have half Scottish/half English cousins and plenty of English friends I'll obviously be cheering on...the USA and hoping Rangers Mo Edu has a good World Cup.Oh and I'll also be rooting for Honduras and France as I drew them in Amatay's rigged sweep on Raise the River!

Joking aside,what really pissed me off today was passing a "celtic" pub on the way to work ( a dirty republican slophouse) and noticing they have the flags of all the World Cup's competing nations hanging outside, except the flag of Englands St George.They've even been pathetic enough to cut the Union flag from the corners of the Aussie and New Zealand flags.Football rivalry is great, but that kind of petty behaviour truly makes me wonder about the mentality of some people.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...

Pandaemonium

After forking out for a new alternator and battery the other week I noticed the battery light was still comimg on.Cost me another £100 to get the smart charge wire sorted and get a cat converter bracket fixed.I seem to run bad when it comes to cars as I bought a Blues compilation yesterday,popped it in my car's cd player and now the cd player is gubbed.If it's not one thing...

I've accepted my sisters offer to do the driving tomorrow.We're heading down South to Lancashire for my Uncles 60th Birthday lunch.Two Pies will be popping round to my place to watch the Gers game and keep an eye on Nacho in the afternoon and when I get back I've arranged to give the hot chick I mentioned in my last post a call to see how we get on.( we've exchanged a few emails n texts)

On the poker front I ran like crap at Party last night and compounded that by playing like a donk too at times.It was a frustrating night.Everytime the game reached the bubble stage it didn't matter how short the small stacks were,they always doubled through.Even when two big stacks went to war with Aces v AK they both split the pot with the board showing 3 10 J Q K.I can't complain too much as I've had a good run at Party recently making nearly $800 over my last 200 games and nearly $1300 over the last 500 I've played there.

I do think there's some adjustment required when playing at the weekends as the fish v regulars quota seems to increase greatly and in the wee small hours the games seem to attract the tilty ( probably drunken) gambling types who used to pad my roll at the Ladbrokes cash tables.One minor change I make is to raise 4bb preflop in the early stages instead of 3bb.I used to always make it 4bb at the Stars $16 ,18 player games and gradually moved to 3bb as I got used to the Party single table games, but it's horses for courses and none of my plays are set in stone.

Ok,thanks for reading todays witterings.I'm off to read some more of Christopher Brookmyres new book "Pandaemonium",play a few sngs and await the s-mans arrival for a night of Motorstorm online nonsense.

Back soon..

Удача v динамомашина сегодни вечером мутантов

Thanks to Al Eleven I remembered to register for Stars Monthly Turbo player point Mtt on Sunday and even persuaded Mother Acorn to use some of her points to play.Meantime the s-man was doing a fine job of setting up the wireless cable modem I bought months ago and thought was broken.

I squeaked the last longer comp,finishing just under the 4000 mark ( from 24.5k players) for $75 although I did have to deal with an upset fishy in the chatbox.He was shortstacked and limped from UTG ( under the gun:first to act) with AK ,I checked my 97 in the big blind and bet into him when I caught a piece of the flop.He insta-called and missed on the turn and river.Of course if he'd just shoved preflop I would have folded.

It never fails to amaze how stupid some players can be.I don't usually chat but when he typed a load of foreign guff I replied that he should "speaka da English Fishy" as I was hoping he may give an unique insight into the mind of a poker donkey by explaining his terrible play.Instead he consulted his google translator and asked if I knew where my Mother was.

I had just typed "Still in this game with a large stack of chips" when my Mum ( who was watching) answered the muppet herself in the chatbox by letting him know she was there.He didn't hang around for long after that.

I've gone back to two tabling over the last couple of nights and it's been going well.I've been winning money,enjoying being able to pick up reads and actually feeling like I'm playing a game rather than just following a routine ( and boring set formula).

I realise the $22's are still at the lower end of the sng food chain but some of the plays I've seen have been so bad I've almost felt compelled to point out in the chat that I don't know the villain and there's no collusion/chip dumping going on.

Hopefully my decent run at Party can continue and I can post some half decent monthly stats on Friday.I'm considering only posting quarterly stats from now on.I realise nobody probably cares or pays much attention to stats posts but if I start a month badly it preys on my mind and if I start well I sometimes play less just to stay ahead.I seem to get into a similar mindset when the end of the month approaches and there's simply no point in focussing so much on the short-term.Anyone who is interested can check my latest stats on Sharkscope at anytime and I'm sure my posts will be pretty clear about how things are going at the felt.

Ok,just time to wish Dynamo Moscow all the best for tonights Champions league qualifier against the Scottish Premier League's runners up from last season.....

Mon Update

I managed to pull a couple of tidy wee birds at the weekend.Actually they pulled me and unfortunately they were wearing police uniforms at the time and seemed more concerned with my average speed than anything else.Luckily for me they were in an unmarked car and let me off with a warning.

To the poker and I four tabled the $22's on Saturday night, winning 6 buy-ins ( over 21 games) and then losing a couple last night over a few games after the s-man left.

I'm about 11 buy-ins up for the month at Party which isn't bad considering I've only played 58 games.I hope my last post didn't come across as being too negative as I'm finding that when I take regular breaks away from playing I feel far more motivated when I do come back to the virtual felt.It feels pathetic to write about burnout when plenty players grind out far more sng's per month than I ever will, but after 5 years of play and a few tough months recently, burning out was a real possibility.

The s-man was over last night for some Motorstorm online action but I also managed to play in the RTR league game where I shoved A6c with just over 6bb,ran into QQ and was helped by Stars 14 Ace deck when I spiked my Ace on the turn to knock Amatay out.Obviously I was racked with guilt at knocking out the man who brought Guesshermuff.blogspot.com into my life...but I'm over it now!

I was fairly card dead as usual in blogger games and eventually went out in 5th when I shoved J10 and ran into QQ.Good times.

Back soon...

That Friday Feeling..

Friday at last....at least it is for me as I'm off work after today for a fortnight and off to Amsterdam next week for a few days.Pud was spot on with his comment on my last post about me needing a break.Roll on!

Thankfully I'm also feeling a bit better today after suffering from a painfully sore stomach for the last couple of days.I could barely walk the dog without having to bend over in pain.I don't do doctors or pills, although I did look at the NHS24 website which didn't exactly set my mind at ease.I followed the flow chart and it said I should call 999 ( 911 equivalent) immediately as I had heart attack symptoms.Instead I took another medicinal route, fired up Party poker for a few $22's and finished up $70 after taking down the last one.

Not much else to say on the poker front other than to thank everyone who has played in the Brit Blogger game over the last few years.The numbers were boosted recently by US/Candadian players due to the BBT Sir Al organised but fell away last Sunday and after consulting co-host Mr Cloud,we've decided to can it for now.It does seem a shame to me that us Brits/Euro's can't get a decent turnout for a low stakes friendly game, but I suppose it's simply run it's course.

Ok,I don't plan on posting much ( if at all) over the next couple of weeks.Time to go away and refresh the blogging batteries....

Wee battle won..

I’m feeling a bit more flush today after winning a wee battle with my car insurance company over the £600 excess they wanted to charge me for the repairs to my car.( after hitting that poor fox the other week) £350 was my voluntary excess and I’d originally missed the fact that there was a £250 compulsory excess also due. Luckily I still had the original quote and confirmation of purchase and neither of those emails mentioned the £250 charge so I complained.In the end I had to pay another £57 to upgrade my policy, but they agreed to waive the compulsory £250 charge ,saving me about £200 overall.As the repair ended up costing over £1200 I suppose that was a bit of a result.

I thought my week was getting even better when an attractive young lady at my work asked if I was doing anything on Friday night. As it happens I’m going to York with the family for my cousins wedding on Saturday, but I am free next Friday...which thankfully I didn’t mention as she was only looking for someone to cover her 6pm finish!

I am looking forward to the York trip although I’ll be heading back up the road quick style on Sunday to be at Ibrox for the vital Rangers v Hearts game. I hear our rivals ground has been closed due to the swine flu outbreak.It seems it has affected most Piggery’s. Oh and I did call the swine flu helpline but couldn’t hear the operator due the crackling on the line.No more hogging this post with crap jokes …

On the poker front things have been looking up a bit over the last few days. I’ve managed a few wins at the $22 Party turbo sngs to leave me close to breaking even across all sites for the month.( including bonuses) I’ve cashed out $1k from ‘Stars and intend to stick mostly to Party from now on as I’ve made over $200 in bonus and cashed in Party points this month.

Ok,thanks for reading.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..

Sat Update

It's funny how some weeks the ideas and thoughts for blogging seem endless and other weeks I feel as if I've said it all and there's nothing original to write about.Perhaps it's about time I cut my posting frequency down a bit.Hmmm.

On Thursday night I took down a couple of turbs and cashed in a couple more on Party for a decent profit and I sensibly went to my bed at 11.30 to try and catch up on a little sleep.I'm not keen on playing when very tired as it seems to affect both my decision making and my reaction to the beats.

Last night before heading across to the S-mans for the evening I began the "Nacho no crisps diet ".( chips for any US/Canadian readers!).This was because when I popped in to pick up Step A to give her a lift to her Dads yesterday the dog jumped up with so much enthusiasm he cut my gum!Much as I adore salt n vinegar crisps, a packet now would be more painful than losing to a runner runner gutshot!Thanks Nacho!

I did manage a feat yesterday which is rarer than flopping three Royal flushes in a row.Yes,I managed to impress a teenager!I heard the girl next to me at work mention Cascada were playing at the Carling Academy in Glasgow and I managed to get a couple of tickets for Step A and the ex Mrs A.Step A's "whoaaa thanks" made it well worth every penny.I just wish I'd bought myself a ticket now as I do love my dance tunes!

Back to last night and I enjoyed a fine evening watching "Hancock" before arriving home around 1am.Friday nights and weekends in general are probably the juciest times to play poker but I was so dang tired I managed to watch half a Spacegravy training vid before hitting the sack about 2am and not getting up until 1.30 pm today!

Almost time to raid the poker account for a new tv.I was looking at a 46" Sony but in truth I don't watch a lot of tele and I reckon this baby would fit the bill nicely.I remember years ago my Mum and Dad buying a 33" set from a pub liquidation sale and it looked massive at the time.Now I'm worrying that a 42" set may not be large enough!

Ok,off to watch the second half of the Scotland v Norway game ( 0-0 at h/t) before taking Nacho out again and enjoying a nice chilled out Saturday.I may even ( if I remember) try out Dr Paulys Omaha game on Stars at 9.20pm UK time.After Dudleys recent success I reckon I should redress the balance with some donkery!

Social Sunday

Good news on Sunday evening! After the "Linkin Park " and "Super Nacho" T-shirts were consigned to the bottom of Step A's drawer it seems she actually likes the "Save the drama for your Mama" T-shirt I brought her home from Amsterdam.1/3 aint bad.The ex Mrs A no longer works on Wednesday nights which means there's no need for me to babysit.She is still working on Monday nights though and although Step A 's usual routine is to go to a pottery class and then to stay at her Grans,she seems to be getting bored of the pottery and I'm hoping she'll require a babysitter again. Nice to note to that "what's the point?" seems to have taken over from "it's so unfair" as the wee ones latest teen catchphrase!

Thanks to the 15 players who showed up to play in this weeks Bloggerment and congrats to poker pro Amatay on taking it down.My own game lasted until my AK couldn't improve against Dudleys JJ.

I fared slightly better in the last RTR league game of the series,scraping into the money in 3rd position.I quite enjoy these social Sunday games.The entry fee may only be $5.50 for each game but most of us have played many games together and that always makes it more interesting.

I've been playing more and more on Party recently and decided to try out a couple of wee $16 ( 18 player) at Stars to get back in the swing of them.AK into AA and QK into A5 ended those games.I did manage a 2nd place in a wee $11 at Party to break even for the night.

I've a busy week ahead.Tomorrow night I'm going over to the s-mans,I've booked the car into get sorted on Wed and my cousin and I are going out to shoot some pool on Thursday evening.

Not much of a post today but that's all I have...

Obvious Read

My wee boy is 4 today.I'm not sure he's old enough yet to appreciate the occasion.Last year he ripped his present open without a word of thanks and greedily devoured his sweets.He's still a messy eater and that must be a character trait as he always seems to drag some mud back inside with him when he's been playing outside.Dogs will be dogs eh. Happy Birthday Nacho! Perhaps I should start a collection envelope at my work for him! ( I loved Oneangrykid's rant on those envelopes)

After arriving back from a lovely dinner with my Mum and Dad last night I watched another sngicons vid and fired up a couple of $22's on Party.I bubbled in one and took the other one down for a $60 profit.Later I played three $16's and took a second place in one of them for a $17 overall profit.

I did save the very first hand from the Party game I bubbled.I was able to put the winning villain on one of exactly three hands post flop and I thought the fairly simple logic which led me to that conclusion may be of interest.If it's not of interest then that's too bad as I've heehaw else to post about today!

As I mentioned I played two Party tables and at the other table it was just DoktorBet and me until it filled up.I had sat down directly on his left and on checking the lobby I discovered he was also the only player sitting waiting for a few more $22's to fill up.There don't seem to be as many multi-table grinders on Party and for that reason those who do play a few tables tend to stick out more.The vast majority of these players are solid players who play a straight forward game until the push/shove fest late on when they become harder to pin on a hand.

As a wee aside the multi-tablers are fairly easy to spot on Stars if I'm firing up a few games.Their auto register scripts ( software which automatically registers them for the next new tourney) mean that they are usually amongst the first to register for a new game.The first 4-5 names ( 18 player games)to appear on the lobby list on Stars are usually the regular grinders.

To the hand in question and despite holding the monster that is A9 I managed to find a fold in the face of a couple of limps before me.Multi-tablers tend to limp quite rarely and when "DoktorBet" called the initial limp I reckoned he could have an AJ/AQ/KQ/ or 22-99 type hand.It was then raised and called by two players before the action was on him again.He flat called and that allowed me to narrow his range to a small to medium pair as I didn't see him just flat calling here with an easily dominated hand like the AJ/AQ/KQ with three others already in a raised pot.Playing so many tables also made it a lot less likely that he was trying to be sneaky with an AA/KK type hand.

When the flop came and he shoved over a continuation bet and a call, he could only have 66,22 or 88.He would know he wouldn't have had enough fold equity to semi-bluff a flush draw here as the other villains had shown too much strength with their actions.That strength also meant he would be more likely to get paid off here by keeping it simple and just shoving here. The chances of him limp/calling with two random hearts seemed quite slim. My guess is he would have reraised AKh preflop and folded JQh/9h10h etc to the preflop raise which doesn't leave many playable two card heart combinations.

Perhaps that's all a load of bollocks, but that's how I read it and for once I was right! Here's the hand...

***** Hand History for Game 7367187266 *****
20/40 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) (STT Tournament 41945012) - Thu Sep 11 17:55:28 EDT 2008
Table Speed 1330287 (Real Money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Astinishing (2000)
Seat 2: mhatz (2000)
Seat 3: Malschik (2000)
Seat 4: afroshopper (2000)
Seat 5: Gload737 (2000)
Seat 6: DoktorBet (2000)
Seat 7: Acornmn (2000)
Seat 8: JetnDiesel (2000)
Seat 9: The_Slipper (2000)
Seat 10: rasaez22 (2000)
rasaez22 posts small blind (20)
Astinishing posts big blind (40)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Acornmn [ Ac, 9d ]
mhatz folds
Malschik calls (40)
afroshopper folds
Gload737 folds
DoktorBet calls (40)
Acornmn folds
JetnDiesel raises (160) to 160
The_Slipper folds
rasaez22 calls (140)
Astinishing folds
Malschik calls (120)
DoktorBet calls (120)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 6c, 2h, 8h ]
rasaez22 checks
Malschik checks
DoktorBet checks
JetnDiesel bets (360)
rasaez22 calls (360)
Malschik folds
DoktorBet raises (1840) to 1840
DoktorBet is all-In.
JetnDiesel folds
rasaez22 calls (1480)
rasaez22 is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 9s ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Kc ]
Creating Main Pot with $4720 with DoktorBet,rasaez22
** Summary **
Main Pot: 4720
Board: [ 6c 2h 8h 9s Kc ]
DoktorBet balance 4720, bet 2000, collected 4720, net +2720 [ 2s 2c ] [ three of a kind, Twos -- Kc,9s,2s,2c,2h ]
JetnDiesel balance 1480, lost 520 (folded)
rasaez22 balance 0, lost 2000 [ 4c 8c ] [ a pair of Eights -- Kc,9s,8c,8h,6c ]

On an entirely unrelated note a colleague was telling me about a customer she dealt with a few years back.The engineer who called out to the customer had done some extra work free of charge as a favour and my colleague commented that the customer "had certainly won a watch there".

A few weeks later the customer called back to say he still hadn't received the watch he had won.....

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...

Monday already?

Congrats to Hammerheid on winning Saturday nights Euroblogger game and to Spid for taking down the Bloggerment last night.I exited the Euroblogger when Hammerheids A3 pwned my KK and in the Britbloggerment I ran QJ into Spids JJ after a shoving my shortstack.Thanks to everyone who came out to play.

I'm still on bank tilt today after calling my banks Head office who confirmed that it will take 5-6 weeks to process my Full Tilt cashout cheque.It didn't take this long previously and they blame a change of procedure on the long delay.Hmmmmf!

The rest of the weekend was quiet.The S-man popped over on Friday night and brought some Nettle,Milk thistle and spearment tea with him.Yes,we used to discuss sex,drugs and rave music and now we sit like a couple of old Grannies doing deals to swap tea bags...

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Turkey come back from 2-0 down to beat the Czech Republic 3-2.It may not have been the free flowing pure brand of football served up by the Dutch at times but it was certainly exciting to watch.

On the poker front I've won a couple of Party $22's since my last post and have even had a winning ( 24 games ,$75 profit) multi-tabling session at Stars.I'm still not up very much overall for the month but I'm feeling a lot more relaxed about it.

Ok,back later in the week...

Bad Beat Dog..

On reflection Fridays nights marathon losing turbo session wasn't entirely wasted.In poker you have to learn to accept losing and get used to bad sessions/weeks and even months.It's just that kind of game.I didn't enjoy the experience, but the next time I run like that over 50 games I'll be able to look back on nights like Friday and take heart from the fact I kept my cool during it,I didn't give up and I kept my losses to a minimum.

I'm always banging on about the long run to people after beats.I suppose that's because I feel like I've been through so many bad runs of my own that I accept they are natural aspects of the game and if I can get through them and profit then anyone can.

Last night I began by coming 3rd in a $33 single table turbo at Party before catching up with Rosie,Juice and Al Eleven in the chat thing.I only played seven $16's and fared far better on the luck front,managing a couple of cashes, including a win, to leave me $107 up at Stars for my work.I still bubbled once and had premium hands busted and I can handle that.It was just the unrelenting nature of Fridays beats and lost races which took me by surprise a little.Perhaps the first time I go on a 100-200 game downswing I'll look back and laugh at a 50 game blip!

During play, I've been trying to save one or two of the more interesting/unusual hand histories I'm involved in.I do ( regularly it seems!) post the hands I played like a donkey so they wont all be hands where I think I've outplayed someone or used a read well.If they do come across as boring brag posts with little value then by all means let me know in the comments box!

This first hand was unusual because I don't often call someone down with Ace high on the river.


PokerStars Game #17668497879: Tournament #89590410, $15+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/05/24 - 21:56:55 (ET)
Table '89590410 2' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: joker0606 (1480 in chips)
Seat 2: cbhawk41 (2400 in chips)
Seat 3: zagga (3140 in chips)
Seat 4: Rigger359 (1320 in chips)
Seat 5: yamador1 (1550 in chips)
Seat 7: ORBEZO (1370 in chips)
Seat 8: thurst e (860 in chips)
Seat 9: Havran rick (1380 in chips)
thurst e: posts small blind 10
Havran rick: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Qs As]
joker0606: folds
cbhawk41: folds
zagga: raises 100 to 120: 6bb preflop raise is standard here.Sometimes I'll make it 3bb and sometimes as much as 10bb depending on how the table is playing and my hand.
Rigger359: folds
yamador1: folds
ORBEZO: folds
thurst e has timed out
thurst e: folds
thurst e is sitting out
Havran rick: calls 100 : One caller.No reads but he doesn't seem to have stepped out of line so far.

*** FLOP *** [4h 7c Jh]: Apart from the flush draw it's not a bad flop for me.He's only going to have a set occasionally and only AJ/KJ/J10 type hands really worry me.

Havran rick: checks

zagga: bets 240: With his 1380 stack a bet of 240 is denying him odds to draw and is also representing such strength that it makes it hard for him to feel confident about bluffing me.I'd expect a strong Jack to reraise here to protect against the flush draw, even although as the preflop raiser,the chances of me drawing to a heart flush are actually quite slim when you take into account my full raising range.

Havran rick: calls 240 : He could know the above and be trapping with a Jack.I have position though and I'll see how the turn develops.

*** TURN *** [4h 7c Jh] [7d]

Havran rick: checks : I don't think the 7 has made much difference.How many hands containing a 7 could he call a preflop raise with? Not many.

zagga: checks : If he is trapping with the Jack,I'm not going to stack off here although I'm now leaning towards him drawing to the flush.

*** RIVER *** [4h 7c Jh 7d] [4c]

Havran rick: bets 480 : The flush fails to get there,he's not been protecting any Jack,he doesn't have a 7 and I can't see how a 4 helps him here either.He could have 55/66/88/99 but my gut feeling is he's on a missed flush draw and is now trying to steal the pot.He may think his Ah or Kh is good anyway on the double paired board,especially as I looked weaker by not firing again on the turn.

zagga: calls 480
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Havran rick: shows [Th Ah] (two pair, Sevens and Fours)
zagga: shows [Qs As] (two pair, Sevens and Fours)
Havran rick collected 845 from pot
zagga collected 845 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1690 | Rake 0
Board [4h 7c Jh 7d 4c]
Seat 3: zagga showed [Qs As] and won (845) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
Seat 9: Havran rick (big blind) showed [Th Ah] and won (845) with two pair, Sevens and Fours



Here's one from the $33 single table turbo I played at Party last night.
100/200 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) (STT Tournament 40248449) - Sat May 24 18:30:58 EDT 2008
Table Speed 1330127 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: marv333 (3380)
Seat 2: Oudeman (2150)
Seat 5: Acornmn (2790)
Seat 7: pauli998 (1990)
Seat 8: Hydroxylysin (3205)
Seat 10: Ivko111 (6485)
Acornmn posts small blind (100)
pauli998 posts big blind (200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Acornmn [ Ts, Kh ]
Hydroxylysin folds
Ivko111 folds
marv333 folds
Oudeman folds
Acornmn calls (100): I don't like limping often but the villain was a fishy calling station who liked to "make moves" and I didn't fancy having to possibly make a c-bet on a board I'd missed with a marginal hand, out of position.I didn't just call blindly though.I did think I probably had the best hand and planned to take the pot post-flop if possible.


pauli998 checks
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 2d, 3s, Ad ]

Acornmn bets (400): Bet the scare card Ace and hope pauli998 has nothing and folds.

pauli998 calls (400): He took a while and called.He was so fishy I'd have expected him to reraise most limps preflop if he had any kind of Ace and I felt he was simply floating me here.( I'd been tight and hadn't been to showdown to get my stack)

** Dealing Turn ** : [ 5c ]

Acornmn bets (1000): Time to go with it and fire a second barrel.I make it 1k to be sure I give him little room to bluff,leave him in no doubt I have the Ace or get him to think I've got lucky with a 4 and made my straight.I know it's highly unlikely I have a 4 but as he's a fish I doubt he's aware of that.

pauli998 folds:Phew!
** Summary **
Main Pot: 1200
Board: [ 2d 3s Ad 5c ]
Acornmn balance 3390, bet 1600, collected 2200, net +600
pauli998 balance 1390, lost 600 (folded)

Ok,someone's in for a bad beat this afternoon and he's not even going to see it coming!I borrowed dog shampoo from the ex and after washing his bed, it's now just about time for Nacho to get a shower followed by a long run at the pitches to dry off.This could be messy....

Chicken Coinflips

On Monday night the s-man popped over and we chewed the fat for a couple of hours before he left and I hit the tables.I was so dang tired from my weekend 5.30am exploits I was wary of not being on my best game.I began at Stars and my first exit was frustrating as I shoved 44,hit a set and still lost to a runner runner flush.

I'm not running well on the sandwich front either! I make up a weeks worth at a time on a Sunday night and freeze them.Everyday for that week I have the same sandwich.One of my colleagues suggested making up enough for two weeks and I did this.Half are chicken and cheese and half are ham and cheese.I grab a bag from the freezer every morning randomly and three times this week I've picked the dang chicken.If I lose another coinflip tomorrow and it's chicken again it may just tilt me! Check out my stats on sandwichscope....

Back to the poker and I came 2nd in the next one I played before I moved to Party for a couple more ( $22 single table turbos this time),bubbling in one and winning the other.I did attract a lecture in the chat for keeping the bubble going by reraising a shorty with AK.I had a huge stack and my reply of "I don't care " may have caused him to steam as that big mouthed idiot did end up bubbling.


Last night I attended a union meeting after work which went on longer than I expected.I logged on and saw that my good mate Al Eleven was around ( the San Jose Salmon) and we both hit the $16's.( 18 player turbos as usual)

Al took one down,made the money in another and I.....didn't!

Al had also fired up a $12 ,180 player turbo and I joined him.In the first one I was so card dead I was blinded down and actually won all in with A7h V two donks.I went on a wee run from there and was frustrated to go out 21st after shoving from the small blind with 96 and being called by some idiot and his Q7 off.He had a similar stack to me and had called for his tourney life almost on the bubble with that hand, but the standard is so low in these games I suppose it wasn't entirely unexpected.

No point ranting in the chatbox.He paid his money and can play any way he likes.It's up to me to adjust accordingly.

I fired up another and again found myself card dead.There is little room for moves and bluffs in these games, but the players drop out so quickly it really only requires a double up or two to stay in the hunt.

I had chipped up to about $5k in chips when I actually got very lucky indeed.A shortstack on the button raised,the small blind flat called and I elected to shove JJ hoping to isolate the shorty.The shorty had hee haw but the sb showed Aces and I was stunned to actually hit a Jack on the river and scoop a nice pot.

I stole a few pots,reraised a bigstacks bet with my JJ ( he folded) and also had my lucky hand ( J9!) win v a short stack.

Before I knew it I was at another final table and I sat back a bit and watched as Muppet Wars ensued and the numbers dwindled further.I'd love to say I took it down but I was quite pleased to come 4th in the end ( $158 prize).The blinds had reached a redonkulous level ( $5k/$10k with antes) and I ( $30k stack) shoved QJ and got called by the bigstacks A10.

Tonight I'm heading home to watch the Gers away game with Hearts on tv before heading over to the ex's to look after Step A until midnight.Tomorrow night it's the casino launch night and on Friday night I'm going to head over to the s-mans.

Roll on..

All Greek to me

We drew 0-0 with the Greek league leaders at Ibrox on Wed night and after the game I headed over to the ex's to look after Step A.

Last night I picked Nacho up and taking him a long walk ,I hit the $16 turbo's slightly earlier than usual at around 9.30pm.I wish I hadn't bothered!
On table one I folded AK to a shove early on and would have flopped a straight.On table two I pushed preflop with AK and ran straight into AA.At higher levels there's probably an arguement which says my shove is -ev ( not profitable) as I'm only going to get called by a better hand, but at $16 I'd expect calls from AQ-A10,k10-KQ and may well force small to medium pairs to fold or take a coin flip.

I had my Aces busted by Q7 soooted in the next game and crashed out of two more before Stars sng lobby once again showed no new registering games.

I was enjoying listening to the RTR podcast ( if you're reading this Splunk ,I look forward to more reraise steals this Sunday in the Bloggerment!)and remembered a thread from the forum on soft sng sites.Oh and before I forget congrats to both Burnley Mik and Yorkie Pud on the news they are going to become Dads! wp lads!

I hit up the fish pool that is Party poker and fired up a couple of their $22 ,one table turbo's and was pleasantly surprised at the fishy standard, taking into account it's a small step up from my usual $16.I crashed out of the first two before winning the last one and although I was feeling quite at home on Pokerstars,I'm going to mix it up with plenty more $22 turbs on Party from now on.

Tonight is the final RTR league game and after coming a close second last season,I've not really been at my best or most focussed in the games this time around.Missing two rounds and playing one at the s-mans ( complete with smoke breaks) may not have helped. I'll be registering shortly...

Ok,quick one from the paper before I go:

News from the American primaries, where voters were polled on whether they thought Bill Clinton campaigning for wife Hillary was helping, or hindering, her campaign. Fifty-nine percent said hindering, 39% said helping, and 2% said: "He never told me he was married!"