Competition Time...

As per my edit to the monthly stats post, I played five $16's without cashing on Monday night which left me up only $423 for the month of June.I suppose it's still a winning month and I shouldn't complain too much.It was just frustrating as I've been making a lot more in recent months and with a week off work too,I was really hoping to reach at least the $1k mark.

My main achievement in June was knocking one of my hero's,Jennifear ( Punkinbear on Stars) out of a $16 turbo. I managed to resist acting like a starstruck fanboy and stuck to a quick "gg"!Her posts and articles on Pocket Fives have been a huge help to my game and she definitely makes my top 3 list of most fearsome online female players.( Along with Annette _15 and a certain Bristol blogger)

I managed to get July off to a reasonable start last night,winning one of the four games I played for a $44 profit overall.Not much else to report today.I'm looking after Step A tonight and won't have net access which is a good excuse to take a night off from playing poker.( I'm still sad enough to take my laptop and watch some previously downloaded Cardrunners videos!)

Here a couple of quirky wee poker hands I've played over the last couple of nights which should probably be filed under the "What were they thinking?" category!

PokerStars Game #18493899678: Tournament #93995760, $15+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/06/30 - 19:10:19 (ET)
Table '93995760 2' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: zagga (1630 in chips)
Seat 5: gavana77 (1200 in chips)
gavana77: posts small blind 10
poundurace: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [Ah Kh] >>> Ahh good old AK.I sit poised over the raise button.

gretske: folds
Shtack: folds
Norskei: calls 20
zagga: raises 80 to 100 >> 5bb or so is standard for me here.
hmloor: folds
ro1_nl: folds
johnny502: folds
gavana77: calls 90 >> Hmmm,I have a caller.
poundurace: folds
Norskei: folds

*** FLOP *** [2h 5s 4c] >> Not great flop for my Big Slick.I'll probably make a decent continuation bet to represent a big pair and hope the villain folds.

gavana77: folds > Perhaps I should forget the c-bet and just hope he folds! ( if it's not clear gavana77 could have checked here instead of just insta-folding!)

zagga collected 240 from pot >> Ahh Big Sick,so powerful it can make villains crumble and fold.

zagga: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 240 | Rake 0
Board [2h 5s 4c]
Seat 1: zagga collected (240)


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 >> It's been a fishy looking game so far and I don't fancy playing my AQ out of position postflop against players who can't fold.( if I raise and miss flop).

master_fp: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah Qs 4s] >> Bingo! Not much to worry about other than 44 and that would be a cooler.

zagga: bets 80 >> Hoping anyone with an Ace reraises me and wanting to build the pot and not scare anyone off just yet.

master_fp: folds
paco02: calls 80
Totò 17: calls 80
M.S. Hanson: folds
*** TURN *** [Ah Qs 4s] [6h] >> safe looking turn card.

zagga: bets 240>> I bet about 2/3 of the pot which I feel is enough to price anyone out of drawing to the flush and not enough that it will scare anyone with an Ace out of the pot.

paco02: calls 240
Totò 17: folds

*** RIVER *** [Ah Qs 4s 6h] [9h] >> Glad it wasn't a spade and not I'm too worried by the 9h.I reckon I'm still ahead although I'm not sure what I'm ahead of!

zagga: bets 520 >> A busted flush draw won't pay me anything so I'll bet enough to get value from my AQ if I'm up against a worse Ace.

paco02: calls 520 >>

Ok,I don't think I've ever offered any prizes on this blog but I'll transfer $10 on Full Tilt or Pokerstars to the first person to tell me in the comments box the hand paco02 called me with! I'll leave the competition open until my next post on Friday...( probably around 6-ish BST)

Driven poker potty...

My gambling addiction rages on as I played yet more poker last night :-))).Not too much joy in my first $15 turbo as I was totally card dead until I picked up Kings and took the blinds with my first bet.My second bet was a steal with QJ and I ran into KK and hit the rail.

During my second game I realised I didn't have my poker potty handy ( every poker degenerate has one) and went on "need a pee" tilt ( combined with Mrs A arrives home and wants to chat tilt) and after raising with AK,I called a solid players all in and went out to ....KK again!

Now I like AK as a hand and I don't mind it as an all in hand, however the crucial point is that it's power comes from being the one betting first and not being the caller.

I tried hard to get that concept over to my Mum when we played.Betting with relative garbage is ok if a)it's been folded to me b) I have the right image c) the villain is solid enough to respect the raise and to have noticed my tight image d)the blinds are worth stealing e)I have position

Mrs A made the sandwiches for my work and I hit Laddies for a wee while before bed.I called a raise with 66 at a full ring $50nl game with the intention of hitting a set or getting out.The flop was a 3 4 5 rainbow and suddenly I saw possibilities opening up with my small overpair ( esp if villain had an AK/AQ
type hand) and straight draw.

The villain bet out and I called hoping to hit my draw or another 6.An Ace on the turn made me stop and think, as the villain seemed to slow down with a much smaller bet.If,as I suspected later,he had JJ/QQ/KK then this was my chance to raise his bet up and represent the Ace with outs to draw to the nuts.I wasn't worried about him drawing to the straight because I had two of the sixes and his preflop raise seemed to big to be a 67 type hand.

In the end I decided I hadn't been at the table long enough to know the villain and that even if I was right about his hand ,I may not be able to push him off.Of course he could well have hit that Ace on the turn but was proceeding carefully in case I was calling with a better hand than his TPTK.

The river was a blank and he bet out $5 into the pot of around $20.I was tempted again to go for a large reraise but for the reasons above I folded as I suspected he may call with JJ/QQ/KK even with the Ace on board especially as I'd done nothing up until that point to represent it.

Ok,just how much can one person slever on about a hand? Quite a lot...see above!

I did finish the night with a well timed bluff at a 6 max table.Yep,I don't just make donkey moves!

I raised to steal with K7d and bet out on the Ace high flop.The flush draw was also out and the villain called my continuation bet.I fired another bullet on the turn and he also called.With the flush draw failing by the river and another Ace falling I tried to make it look like I wanted a call and bet $6 of his remaining $9.He folded.Whooooooo!


Righty,the milkman and I are kicking around a few ideas re the bloggerment game.In some respects I'm of the keep it simple ,if it aint broke don't fix it school, but any ideas to keep things fresh are welcome.Some kind of league perhaps with a monthly prize? A midweek game alongside the Sunday one?A monthly $10 or even $20 mtt??
Thoughts welcome...

One last mini-rant before I go.If I see "methinks" written in any more comment sections of online newspapers there's going to be a cyber killing!
I think I'm not feckin' joking!

Edit: Just read this at Iggys blog.Pure quality man! ( flux capacitor indeed!)