Bloggerment + $55 Turbo Sng

Thanks to all 28 players who showed up to play in Sunday nights Bloggerment tourney.My good mate Al Eleven took it down and won a $5 last longer bet from me after hitting so many flops and rivers that even God now talks about running in "Al Mode".( at least he probably will in his next chat with Mr Cloud!)

I scraped a 7th place finish after shoving K9 from the button into Mr Cloud's AJ and failing to hit.I did get some luck earlier in the game when my QK beat Benwahballs2's 88 all in preflop, but was card dead for most of the tourney.It was good to see some new players like Ben,L4Y SP and Evanzio at my table as well as most of the usual suspects.If any of the new players ( or anyone in general) has a blog and wants linked up just give me a shout.

After the Bloggerment I played a little cash game poker ( three tabling $50 nl full ring) for a change and left with a bit of profit.

On the health front the pain is easing a bit down my right hand side, although for some reason I woke yesterday with a bloodshot right eye and that doesn't seem to have gone away.I did finally get the insurance cheque at last.

Surfing around today online I found a Q+A session with Patrick Antonious and loved this one in particular:

Question from Flo420: is marijuana a bad drug?
Answer from Patrik Antonius: no its a leaf lol


I didn't play any poker at all until late last night when I decided that as I was up a few hundred up for the month, I'd grow a pair and have take a wee shot at a $55 turbo sng and play a $33 at the same time.I've only played a few $55's and have taken one down before.The $33's I've played far more often.Playing only two tables gave me time to Sharkscope the $55 and any fears I had of being way out of my depth were eased.One decent regular and 8 players who have lost about $23k between them!



There were some major donk like moves going on but perhaps $55 donks are still better than $22/$33 donks as there were still seven players left as we hit the high blinds.I'd had a 1310 stack after paying the big blind at 300/600 when the decent reg player shoved his big stack when folded to him in the cut-off and a fishy player on the button called for his last 1060 chips.I reckoned I was ahead of the cut off's range with my A7 and although I hated calling an all-in due to the button also being in the pot,I felt he would be calling with a very wide range in this spot.I also felt I had to take the chance to chip up or be left with less than 2 big blinds and no fold equity v the fish with 6000 chips in my bb next if I passed and paid the small blind in the next hand.( and that's assuming it folded to me)

The button had KJ,the small blind QJ sooted and the King on the flop sent me to the rail.



I'm still not 100% sure calling here was correct( all comments welcome) and perhaps I would have been better shoving the A4 I folded from UTG+2 when the table was still full and the blinds were at 200/400 in order to try and accumulate some chips.I had been tight but with so many fish and being only UTG+ 2 it felt like an easy fold at the time.

Of course no player wants to be shoving A4 or even calling with A7, but these are turbo's and when you're card dead it's still vital to avoid being blinded out.


Ahh well I hope whoever won cashed out and rubbed it on their titties...( I know it's been around a while but it's such a fine song and vid!)

The Return of...

...The Bloggerment!



Yep,it's back this Sunday and will be coming soon to the Pokerstars Lobby under the "Private" tab.( click on Tourneys first).It's open to all bloggers,readers and Raisetheriver forum members.Feel free to chat it up or play the silent chip stealing assassin! Bounties are on offer and I'll pay $5 to anyone knocking out Dudley ( Resdent Evil) after just getting a text from him suggesting the crate I swerved to avoid last Monday was put there by a rep from the Foxes Welfare Society!

On the health front I called the Docs this morning and was referred to Accident and Emergency at the hospital due to the slight popping sound I can hear when lying on my front.They literally took the piss,gave me another x-ray and the outcome was that they reckon I've torn muscles in my back and it'll just take time to heal, which in the grand scheme of things is good news.Called the Doc back for a sickline and I've got an appointment for Wed morning.Hopefully a week or two off and I'll be fighting fit again.

*Edit: Just had a call from the Docs to say they've read my hospital notes and I've been given a 2 week sickline with no need to go on Wed.

My sis popped round last night with Spag Bol,Chile and a DVD box set of The Wire and Prison Break.Oh and the Frankie Boyle live dvd too.After she left I played some poker and watched Slumdog Millionaire.I'm actually up a couple of hundred dollars at the $22's this month over not too many games, but as the swings are huge that really doesn't mean very much.

I also called the insurance company and they say I should get a call within a couple of days to negotiate a payout for my wrecked Focus.I like the look of a Honda Civic v-tec Type S I spotted and may raid my poker account if required too.

Ok,Back to feeling like I've been attacked by a Fire-Truck...

Social Sunday Review...

I warmed up for last nights games by watching a BigJoe training vid on Sngicons.At 9pm it was time for the Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt and the RebelsofPoker forum game on Stars.

Congrats to Lexluther on taking down the Blogger game and thanks to everyone who showed up to play.I went out 6th and I'm afraid my new herbage is so good I've no idea what my exit hand was! If it was a suckout I'm sure I'd remember, so I probably donked out!

I'd joined the RebelsofPoker forum after seeing many of the best Stars Sng players using the forum avatar at the tables.Sixteen players entered the $10 game and there were a few bounties on the pro ginders too.

I had notes ( extensive notes like "shark" or "solid winner") on a few of the players at my table and a "friend" ( ahem) kindly supplied me with Sharky stats on the others.( Stars now bans Sharkscope use) It was one of the toughest line ups I've faced at the tables and depsite the fact they were probably all playing 20 tables at the same time,I knew I'd have my work cut out for me.

I felt I held my own quite well overall and there was only a short spell when Vectile was shoving over my pre-flop raises that left me feeling like I was being completely outplayed.Winning a big race with AQ v 88 set me up for a final table run and I tried to pick my spots carefully from then on.I was card dead for most of that final table and had to make a few steals and resteals to stay in the hunt.

Finally we were down to the bubble and unfortunately for me that's where my game ended.I'm struggling to recall all the details of my exit hand but here's a rough idea of what happened and the logic behind my move.

My donkey ears flapped in front of my eyes,I shoved and lost.( that's the simple explanation!).Ok, Skitzofrenik had a huge chiplead,scone-on was on around 2k and giRL90ihqdaa just had my 4k covered with about 4.5k.I picked up K10c utg and decided to shove as scon had been tight in the bb and I reckoned I'd be ahead of his random hand.As it was the bubble I didn't expect giRL90ihqdaa to call me light and my only worry was Skitz who had respected my raises so far during the game.

I don't remember the exact blinds (at least 400/800 I think).Although I had a lead over scon in third place, he wasn't about to sit there waiting to be blinded out and as it would be me he would be shoving on,I felt pushing my K10c and getting him to fold would put me in a much better spot.I mentioned steals earlier, and when I'd made one with K4 a bit earlier he had pegged me for a premium hand and that was also a small factor in my decision.The upshot was that giRL90ihqdaa called from the button with AK and I didn't improve.

I was also playing a wee $6 ,20 player game on Party with Juice and Rosie.I scraped into the money in that one and bubbled a $22 before bedtime.

Thanks for reading.Back soon....

Bloggerment tonight...

If you're at a loose end tonight fire up the Bloggerment on Stars and join in the donkery! It's under the "Private" tab and is open to all....

My Bloggerment co-host ( Mr Hannah Montana ) has emailed me re moving the Bloggerment to Full Tilt again for a while,starting it at 8pm and making it a turbo.I'd be happy to give that a go.All thoughts on the subject welcome.

On the poker front things continue to go reasonably well.I cashed $2k out of Pokerstars and finally ordered my new tv and took out enough to cover next months road tax bill too.The tele and a new Virgin + box arrive next Saturday.Roll on!

Thanks to Poker Jones for the comment left on a recent post about me stepping up a bit.I have been pushing myself out of my comfort zone more often over the last couple of weeks and it's made me realise how poor my concentration and focus had become at my usual $16 games at times.I suppose this is partly because I'm way over-rolled for them and partly because the opposition is so bad that it really doesn't take a lot of skill to beat them.

I've played a few $27's and a $38 on Stars now and haven't had any breaks.My $33 and occasional $55 ventures at Party have been much better.The Stars $38 was an 18 player and I busted in 6th after running my 1010 into AJ.That hand would have given me the chiplead and hurt for a moment or two before I realised it was basically a standard flip and not something I'd think twice about at $16.

I'm actually down $78 overall at Stars sngs for the month but that's only over 36 games.My PLO/Bloggerment wins ( On the PLO front Dr Paulys game was set up as HU Omaha by mistake this week and I was pwned in my first game) mean I'm still in profit on the site for the month but I can't believe I've only played 36 games on my favourite site!

Actually I can believe that.Why play regular filled $16's on Stars when the Party fishbowl is so much jucier?I just hope they never let the Americans back in to ruin a good thing! Keep Party full of fishy Euro/Canadians!

Ok,too tired to post anymore today.Back soon...

PLO + Bloggerment recap

I think I'm still in shock after taking down Dr Paulys Omaha game on Saturday night.I've only played a few PLO turbo sngs before and my only hope pre-game was that I wouldn't go out first or make a complete donkey of myself.I probably managed the latter but for once the poker gods were on my side.I really enjoyed the game and having to think hard ( well as hard as is possible when partaking in fine herbal greenage!) when it came to hand values etc made a welcome change from the almost robotic way I play Holdem sngs turbos.Having said that, once the final table was down to the bubble, the cards mattered less and I managed a couple of steals before luckboxing my way to glory!

I only played a few ( nl!) turbos after that game and took down a couple.I usually seem to start the month badly and pull it back but so far this month ( especially at Party) I'm doing well.I included a few more Party $33's amongst my games and continue to be amazed at some of the donkery on display.In one game we were down to three players and I was the very shortstack by some distance.The bigstack shoved and the medium stacked second placed player called with K9 soooted! ( he lost and let me easily move up to 2nd place)

I'm learning to focus more on finishing first at single table sngs.At 18 player games the payout structure is flatter and most of the time I'm happy to take first or 2nd. ( $81 to $108 is jump at $16's). At the $22 single table the structure means it's $60 for 2nd and $100 for first which means it's far more important to try and win when Heads up.

Yesterday I was out with my Dad looking at new Plasma sets.Here's the new hot fav!I had a fine roast dinner over at my parents place before heading home in time for the Bloggerment.Thanks to all 9 players ( full table at least!) who showed up for the game.Unfortunately thanks to AOL's wonderful broadband service Lisa and Jd were disconnected for most of the first hour or so.As this was the final table they were allowed about 6 hours to reconnect on every hand and at one point it seemed like we'd still be playing at Christmas.The chatbox was a laugh as usual though and when they finally reconnected JD did very well to chip up and began the HU battle with me at the end with a decent chiplead.We battled back and forth for what seemed like ages before I finally caught a few hands and took it down.

Not got much else today.Back soon...

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...

Message for Rosie and Tan!

Thanks for registering already for the Britbloggerment game tonight.Mr Cloud has spotted that it's been set up for 3pm est ( 8pm UK time) by mistake! I've now set it up for the right time ( 4pm est ,9pm UK time) but can't cancel the other one as you guys are registered.Apologies for the cock up!

My poker yesterday began with the Stars Silver FPP $20k freeroll at 7pm.The last time I reached Silver status I didn't even realise these games were on.I finished 304th from 5000 donkeys for $16.I've never been an MTT player and I'm not sure I ever will be ,however I feel like I've beaten the cash games up to $50/$100nl,got the measure of sng turbos and mtt's are an area of poker I'd like to tackle properly one day.

To the turbs and I made $74 from 19 games at $16 level although once again I seemed to come unstuck a little when I added a fourth table to the three I was playing.( I was $148 up after 11 games) I still managed some horrendous bubble finishes.I remember reading about how people think the big stack always wins any all ins.In my experience it's the total opposite! It seems to me the shortstacks always hit their miracle card to stay alive on the bubble.

I won $90 overall and after recent poor sessions I probably shouldn't grumble too much! I'm not going to edit yesterdays stats and include last nights winnings.I never seem to start a new month well and a + $90 night will hopefully help Junes figures.

To jump back to the Bloggerment ,Mr Cloud sent me an email with a few cracking ideas to spruce it up a bit.He mentioned a more structured league format which to be honest I'm actually not in favour of because I like the fact people feel they can dip in and out of the Bloggerment without missing out.The loosely structured league table Mr Cloud ran before ( and Stephen previously) seemed to work well.That's only my view though and I'd be interested to hear what others think.

A name change to something like "Bloggers Euro Tour" ( BET!) or Eurobloggerment and a possible move to 10pm UK time on a Saturday night are also under consideration.I quite like the idea of trying a $10 or even $20 game next Sat night alongside the Bloggerment as usual on Sunday to see if there's any interest.( please play because me v Mr Cloud HU would be one helluva long cagey battle!)

Please do leave any feedback and ideas on the above!

Friday update

The ex called the other night and offered to clean the flat in return for me loading some new songs onto her mp3 player and I agreed.I picked her up and popped in to say a quick hello to Step A who asked me if I could look after her this Wednesday.I'm looking forward to it already!

On the poker front despite my post yesterday about needing 151 fpp's ,I ended up playing only two $33's at Party and came 2nd in one of them.I actually saved a hand history where a villain had shoved his A9h after a raise and a reraise just to show that ( certainly on Party)the $33's are pretty soft.Tonight I shall be mostly hammering Stars turbos to try and reach silver.

I've not set the Bloggerment up yet and I'm still not sure I will.Last weeks low turnout and chatbox "fun" make me think it's not worth it.I'm not an "it's my ball and I'm taking it home" kind of guy so I may set it up regardless of other factors.It seems a shame to me that US/Canadian bloggers have almost daily tourneys and even their own Radio Station ( well worth a listen) and over here we can't get many people to show for a wee $5 game.

Sunday is also the night the new RTR league ( see raisetheriver.com for details) starts and as it looks like those games are going to be of the shorthanded slow play variety I may give it a miss this time around.Now if they were turbos!

Ok,not much planned for the weekend other than picking my boy up tomorrow and hammering the tables.

Back soon...

A good bad night

Although the post title may not make much sense that's how last night at the virtual tables felt to me.

AA cracked by 99 flopping quads,by 56 rivering a straight and by QQ rivering a queen.
K10 beaten by 45
QQ beaten by A8
1010 beaten by AQ
JJ beaten by J10soooted on bubble
K9 beaten by 79
K5 beaten by Q10
10J beaten by 89
KK beaten by AQ.

Those were just some of the hands which had me cursing last night.The good news is that I still managed to make $124 from my 16 games and felt more comfortable with the pace when multi-tabling four tables at a time.I think perhaps playing six at a time the other night made four seem a lot easier to handle.It's like speeding up to 90mph on the motorway and then slowing down to 70.Suddenly 70mph seems like a slow Sunday stroll.

I've even managed to creep up another place on one of the Sharkscope leaderboards.



After my last tourney I hit up Bet 365 and two tabled cash tables for 1/2 hour.I lost $20 on a $200nl 6 max table and won $85 at $100 nl 6 max.If the time hadn't been edging towards 5.30am I would have stayed longer at that $100 table as I had a decent stack and felt I had the measure of the other players.( two really big fish were spewing chips too!)

It's currently half-time in the football and Rangers are drawing 0-0 with Hibs.Our rivals won yesterday after yet another poor refs decision.This time the ball went out of play before they scored, but somehow the match officials failed to notice and their winner stood.They say these things even out over a season.There would need to be another 38 games for that to even have a chance of being true after recent weeks.

Ok,I'm off to watch the second half and then take Nacho for a long walk.Don't forget to register for tonights Bloggerment...

Bloggerment 44 Open

I still wasn't feeling great yesterday evening and if I'd been sensible I'd probably have been in bed for 10pm.I'm not guilty of being sensible too often though and last night was no exception!

I began my pokery fun by crashing out of a couple of $16 turbos before doing the same at a $25 mtt on Littlewoods where I have a little cash for the Raisetheriver games.

Oh, I also crashed out of Fridays RTR league game, when, just for a change,I ran into AA ,as it appears I'm destined to do in most Blogger/forum games!

I took a break to watch Match of the Day and thoroughly enjoyed watching the highlights of Havant & Waterlooville's game with Liverpool in the FA Cup.When I was at the Gers game yesterday there were whispers going around Ibrox that the part-timers, Havant, had taken the lead and for Liverpool to equalize, only to see Havant retake the lead was almost unbelievable.5-2 in the end to the Premiership side but hats off to Havant for putting up such a fine showing.That is what football is all about.

Back to the poker and despite more endless suckouts I managed to make over $300 from 28 games in total to help wipe out Friday nights deficit.As always, I feel it should have been a lot more.I stuck to playing four tables at a time and found it easier as I had some reads on the villains to go with.My last set of games was particularly frustrating as I had big stacks at 3/4 tables but only managed to win one.According to Startracker I get in the money in 26% of the 18 player turbos I play in. I suppose cashing in 2/8 ( from two sets of four games)is actually ok despite how it feels.It's hard to keep the faith in your game when it's 0/8 and the next 4 start badly but there's no point in whining about it.If you can't stand the heat,get out of the kitchen eh.

I think I can be quite tough mentally most of the time when it comes to poker, but I seem to need to be warmed up first by playing a few games to get myself to the stage where I can just accept the wave of nausea that comes after a bad beat, and move on the the next hand/game without dwelling on it.

Unless I get off to a great start, I never seem to enjoy the first few games I play most nights, as I find it takes me a bit of time to get into the flow of it and play my best game.I make most decisions almost on auto-pilot a lot of the time, but it's those games at the beginning of the night where I'm most hesitant.Perhaps if I worked off some kind of fixed starting hand chart it would be easier, but that's not my style and poker is so situational that it never will be the way I play.

It's the "it depends" reason which probably stops me being more active on forums re discussing hand histories.For example when written down,a hand may look like an ICM auto-shove in a bubble situation, but if the villain is a donk calling any two cards with a huge range then perhaps the "right play" becomes more questionable.I've mentioned before I'd to to war preflop with Tens or better in my 18 player turbos preflop and most of the time that serves me well.Last night though I lost with Tens and Jacks after preflop all in's against bigger pairs.At first glance that's just one of these things which happens,however a deeper look revealed the two reraisers in both cases (I'd made a 5bb preflop raise)were both solid regular players and my auto-shoves should have been more carefully thought through against them.

Ok,that's enough witterings for a Sunday!

Don't forget to register for tonights Bloggerment on Stars at 9pm gmt/4 pm est.It's only $5.50,open to all bloggers and the password is donkament as usual....

Pimpage

My Xmas/New Year blogging break isn't over yet, but I thought I'd throw out a wee post tonight as I'm at a loose end.

First up don't forget the Britbloggerment poker tournament is running on Pokerstars as usual this Sunday.Find it under the "Private tournament" tab.It starts at 4pm est/9pm gmt and the password is "donkament" as usual and it's only $5.50.

I thought I'd use my 750th post to pimp a few non-poker blogs I read on a quite a regular basis,afterall this is a poker and life blog and there are ( yep,it's true) some fine non-pokery blogs out there too.

In no particular order and with a few words as to why I like them:

Mousethinks is an excellent blog written by a nurse working in a casualty dept.Very humorous and very touching at times.

Londoncabby does what it says on the tin.You can almost smell the exhaust fumes...

Emmahardy If it was a book,her blog would be a page turner.Very honest and forthright.


Oldageisabitch Frequently updated and well written blog.I think I like it because her life/blog just seems so completely different to mine and the usual stuff I read.

Random acts of reality Top class writer working for the London ambulance service.Easy to work out why this blogger has had a book published.

Iamlivid My kind of humour.Unlike those descriptions next to crap sitcoms in tv guides describing them as "hilarious",this blog really lives up to that billing.

Privatesecretdairy Some excellent satire here and a great cast of characters.The comments are usually worth a look too, although this was the first blog where I noticed some sort of uber ghey competition to be first to leave a comment."oooh I'm first" etc.Wtf is that all about?!

My boyfriend is a twat
Not long discovered this blog, but I'm glad I did and will hopefully waste some fine workplace producivity time reading it's archives!


Ok,I'm off work until Jan 7th and will probably continue my blogging break until around then too.( possibly will do a monthly stats update on 31st for my records)

Thanks for reading...

Merry Christmas

The weekend was great ( apart from getting lost twice on the way back from Glasgow airport!)and now I'm busy with last minute stuff for Xmas.

Thanks to all who turned out for the bloggerment last night and congrats to my mate Al Eleven for taking it down with an outstanding display of troutery! I hope that bridesmaid dress fits Dudley.

After a run of poor bloggerment finishes I decided not to try and mix it up as much and eventually bubbled after raising with AQ and running into 1010 and AA.

I'm taking a wee blogging break for a week or so.( long overdue!).Merry Xmas to all bloggers and readers out there.Have a good one.....

Supercaleygoballistic,celticareatrocious

Last night I ate a happy chicken for dinner and logged on ready for the Bloggerment at 9pm.Thanks to all 18 people who turned out for last nights game, and well done to Burnely Mik for taking it down.

I've been on a poor Bloggerment run recently and last night was no different.Amatay had raised ( again) and when Hammerheid reraised I didn't put him on a big hand ,as I thought he was probably taking a stand against Amatay.He was...with KK and my AK was no good.I only just avoided the monkey as I crashed out in 17th.

I played a short knockout mtt with Rosie on Full Tilt before returning to the $16,18 player turbos and some two tabling.It seemed like I couldn't win a hand and at one point I went 0/8 without cashing and attained "super tilt" status on Sharkscope.A sick part of me actually welcomes that kind of adversity.I've been playing long enough and have seen enough donkery in these games to stay on my game and keep plugging away until it comes good.

Whilst they were horrible to go through, I feel my previous runs of 0/13,0/20 etc ( without cashing in a sng) have helped me to deal with nights like last night.The good news is that I managed a win, a few more in the money finishes and my form is now "hot" on Sharky.

Met up with my sister tonight and hopefully I'm now just about sorted for Xmas presents.Xmas is coming early this year as Rosie arrives on Friday! I'm gambling on Mother Acorn doing the dishes when she's here for the new front door being fitted on Thursday, but I've still bit of work to do round the flat before the weekend.

Almost forgot to mention what a fine weekend it was for Rangers too,winning 2-1 at home to Hearts while celtc could only lose 3-2 to Inverness.This leaves us 2 points behind but with two games in hand.Long way to go yet but maybe,just maybe the league flag will be coming home this season.

Ok,the s-man is popping round shortly,Nacho needs a walk and I've not heated my dinner yet!

Back later in the week...

Sitting out....

Apologies for forgetting to post anything about the Bloggerment in yesterdays post.Congrats to Hulljimi for taking it down again! Two key hands helped knock me out.For the first I raised with 1010 and folded to a reraise and a shove.I would have been up against AK and KK but would have hit my 10 on the turn to win a huge pot.The other key hand was when I reraised all in with QQ and was called by KJ.A nasty 3 outer King on the flop and I hit the rail.I usually hang about for the chat but after my Sat night poker hell ( see previous post) I actually felt quite cheesed off about my Queens getting busted and didn’t watch any more of the Bloggerment.Thanks to all who turned out.Same time,same place this Sunday!

Last night I finally realised why it takes me so long to begin to play poker most nights and it’s quite simple really.I hate poker! At least I hate suffering beat after beat and when playing turbo’s there simply seems to be no escape.I fired up some $16’s ( 18 player as usual) and went 0/5 without cashing after yet another horrible run.No boring details but I couldn’t win a race and I couldn’t even win with hands like AA v KQ.

I told myself to get a grip and to keep playin’ em right and I would come out ahead, but I’ve been on 0/13 and even 0/20 without cashing before, and the hard cold fact of poker is that you can play like a WSOP champion and still get beaten down time after time.Determination and willpower can only take you so far.Thankfully I fired up three more and managed a crashout,a third place and win in the last one.From 0/5 despair ( ok not quite despair but the frustration was building) to a small profit overall.I did feel I actually got lucky on a few occasions in the game I won and I’ll try and remember that when thinking about the previous beats.

Not that I’m running out of ideas to post about ( ahem!) but I thought I’d mention a comment I left on BM’s latest excellent post on variance and not berating the villains in the chatbox.Although I tend to focus on my own bad luck rather than an opponents donkey call, the other reason I’ve never ever berated a villain over a bad beat is that if I’m still at the table,I feel it narrows the calling range the table will put me on.ie if someone makes a donkey call with A9 V AK and hits, typing “how could you call with a9 you idiot” simply alerts the table to the fact that I’d be unlikely to call a shove unless I had a premium hand,leaving me more open to getting my blinds stolen.As poker is an information game I reckon it’s best to keep ‘em guessing.

I did have a funny moment at a turbo tourney the other night when I raised with J8 from the small blind to steal the big blind because the big blind was “sitting out”.He/she must have “sat back” just as I raised because he called and we saw a ( lucky for once) Jack high flop.I bet out and he called on the flop ,turn and river and then berated me for raising with J8.I don’t think I mentioned I only bet because I thought he was away but it did get me thinking about using “sitting out” to gain an edge,especially during the mid to late stages of tourneys when the blinds are worth stealing.

I usually fold garbage hands anyway so the plan would require sitting out and letting the site software auto-fold for me until I picked up a playable hand,hoping someone tries to steal and quickly sitting back in and reraising.If the initial raiser is betting from the cut-off/button then they are likely to be betting quite lightly ( ie with not much) so it may not even require that great a hand to “sit back” and shove over the top with.

I’m sure there are other variations on using “sitting out” to gain an edge and I’d be interested to know if anyone has tried any or had any other suggestions.

Off to the ex’s tonight to look after Step A and Nacho.I’ll be taking my laptop and will be watching poker training videos and trying to “borrow” a wireless connection to play some poker….

Bloggerment 33 Open for reg....

After watching Rangers beat Caley Thistle 2-0 at Ibrox I popped home and then headed over to the s-mans for a couple of hours of ps3 Fall of Man fun.I may need to buy a PS3 at some point as it was a fine gaming experience!

On the way home I picked up Nacho and took him for a run before coming home and hitting the tables.I messed about for ages with Pokertracker ,GT+ and the trial version of Poker Ace.

I settled at a $100nl 6 max table on Bet365 and doubled my buy-in before losing most of it to a complete fish.That was frustrating, but one by one the other players left and all of a sudden it was just me and fishboy left.





I had $115 at this stage and over the next hour I slowly ground down the fishy and left with just over $200.Heads-up cash play is not something I play often, but I felt I had his measure and was calling down his bluffs with Ace high hands and make value bets with second pairs etc and in general just felt in da zone!

I should have called it a night after that, but managed to go on and lose $60 of those winnings before heading to Laddies and being coolered for another $80.I think I'm still up about $50 this week, which is obviously better than being down, but it still seems like a lot of play for not a lot!


Righty today is Bloggerment day and it's open for registration on Stars.I'll probably play the DTD forum game too, but I'm certainly not a fan of it starting at 9pm, as I prefer to focus on one game at a time when I'm not donking it up in push/fold turbos.

Stars ,9pm ,pass:donkament and all welcome as usual for the Bloggerment....

Smashing night

Woke up this morning to find someone has thrown something at my living room window and shattered the outside pane of the double glazing.I heard a noise about 2am, but my hall lightbulb had fallen out the previous night and in my half asleep state I assumed it was that again.When my tennant was in my flat I had to pay for new glass in 2005 and I have a feeling he had problems with the local neds/chavs.So much for the area being quieter than I remember!

It's not the end of the world though.My buildings insurance means it's going to cost me £50.What really makes me mad is that although he wasn't there last night,Nacho sleeps below that window ( I actually suspect he moves to the couch when I go to bed!) and it could have scared or even injured him.

I didn't want to post negative stuff today because with the Bloggerment and the Pokerstars Wccop raging last night ,the tables were buzzing.

Big thanks to Wolverine, GCox and Al Can't Hang for the Bloggerment pimpage.Obviously it helped that it started only 1 hour after the main Stars event.( and to think we nearly cancelled it this week) It was great to see 38 players turn out for the Bloggerment and even better to see so many US/Canadian playing.Every table seemed to have a good mix of nations and characters.The chat/trash talk seemed to flow easily enough too, as did the aggressive moves!

The good news for the UK/Europe is that after 30 Bloggerment games,the title stayed on these shores after Burnley Mik won heads up in the end against Bin-golfing.Congrats to BM and well done to all who took part for helping make it one of the best attended Bloggerments to date.

My own Bloggerment story came down to two main hands.I raised Rosie with A9 from the small blind,had to fold to her reraise on a Jack high ragged flop and then ran 99 into JJ.Game over in 20th position!

In the WCCOP Stars game I managed to build my stack to 32k before losing most of it when I semi-bluffed 77 and ran into K9 on a nine high flop.I hung around like a bad smell before finally going out in 337th place.

Burnley Mik was tearing up the tables and I railed him until he went out around 60th in the Wccop.I was also playing a $100 nl full ring table and left $20.No major hands to report but the cardrunners vids I have watched so far did give me the confidence to raise my aggression prefop, which seemed to work.

Ok,that's it for now.Thanks for reading...

Power cut

No poker on Wednesday night and last nights play began with a couple of nasty exits from 'Stars $16 games.The good beat yesterday was that at about 1pm a power cut at work meant we all went home! ( though typically they are trying to shaft us over our flexi-time for leaving early).

I went to Comet first and had a look at new laptops.Even after more screen freezing at Ladbrokes last night, I'm still a bit reluctant to splash out for a new one in case it's my cable connection.I did try and run Pokertracker though and it gave me the "programme not responding" message as usual.At least a new Lappy should sort that out.

After my sng exits I fired up a Laddies $50nl 6 max table and after winning a big pot with a marginal call,I ended up playing 3 handed for a while until one villain left and I cleaned out the shortstack.The marginal call saw me face an all in after the turn card with a flush draw,open ended straight draw and 2 overcards.I suspected my overcards may not be live ( villain had flopped 2 pair) and I was probably lucky to river my flush and take the pot.

Picking up my lad ( Nacho) after work again today and will be taking him for a run ( well he runs,I stroll!) before dinner and the final Raisetheriver league game.I'm not sure how the points are allocated but I'm fairly sure it's going to take Ricky Rosa exiting early and a win for me to wrestle back 1st position and the league title.Highly unlikely but not impossible.

Ok,that's all for now.Don't forget to register for Sundays Bloggerment at Stars.4pm est/9pm bst. Pass:donkament

Bloggerment 29.Sun 7th 9pm UK time

Find it under the Private tab in the Pokerstars lobby.Start time is 4pm est/9pm bst.

All bloggers,readers,newbies and oldies welcome!

ps It's actually only Bloggerment 29 but I aint changin' it now.No prizes for guessing what next weeks banner will look like!

Programme not responding....

I donked out of the RTR league game early last night and followed that by coming 6th in a $16 ( 18 player) turbo and then moving up to a $27 turbo and scraping 4th for a small profit.

I moved to Bet365 where I was $40 up at a $200nl table when my screen froze with me holding AA.I'm not usually the type to go radio rental over bad beats ( most of the time!)but watching some donkey betting out on a ragged flop,seeing my wee egg timer frozen and then getting the dreaded "programme not responding" message nearly sent me loopy!

The freezing up/site lag seems to happen at other sites too but nowhere near as often as it does at 365.I wonder if it's a general problem with 365 or my overworked cheap laptop playing up.I love playing there though and have now built the $50 I deposited a couple of months back into over $700 worth of profit.

I took a wee break and then hit up a couple of Laddies $100 full ring tables where I played till about 4am.On one of my tables I just couldn't get anything to run for me at all and a couple of "cooler" hands really hurt.It's not a bad beat when you have AQ and the villain has AK on an A K Q flop but it did make me want to puke!

I dread to think how much I actually lost on that table because I was over $140 up at the other one and still finished $100 down overall by the time I went to bed.

I do now have over 2000 Laddies player points and will probably use them up in either an FPP cash prize tourney or a in a qualifier to their upcoming main event tonight.

I thought I'd post this hand from last night.I actually folded preflop ( I had 6s3s) but I was left asking myself if I would have called the post flop all in bet considering number of outs I had.Would you?!



Here are the post flop odds...



One of my turns...



Typical that I folded preflop here, but played a similar hand later and completely missed every draw by the river!

Back to Laddies player points and I enjoyed this line from their terms and conditions.. "The offer is available to genuine players only, genuine players being ones that are active and participating in games with the intention of winning pots."
I'm glad I'm not an imposter player intent on losing and throwing my money away?!
I assume they are trying to put off multi-table bonus grinders but surely if you're paying the blinds/rake then you are entitled to play whichever way you like.It's hardly that generous a scheme that you could afford to not play any hands and just rack up points to make money.Maybe I'm missing something...

Righty it's Sat and I will have my boy ( Nacho my half staffy/half whippet)for company tonight and I'm back at Ibrox for the Rangers game tomorrow.My sister has been fantastic over the last week or so helping me choose the decor etc for the flat, and she will be popping over with her hubbby sometime this weekend to see the almost finished article.One bottle of white wine awaits her for her fine efforts.I've fallen out bigtime with my Mum at the moment ( don't even ask!) and my sister has had to listen to all that too,( from both sides) so I think she's earned her wine!

Righty here's a wee one from the paper to help stoke up the the Bloggerment rivalry with the Auld Enemy!Don't forget to register at Stars for tomorrow evenings game.See previous post for details.Everyone is welcome t play in it and will be made very welcome.

Donald Buchanan was at a meeting in Milngavie this week where the speaker on global warming informed them that the sea levels were rising at 2mm per year, but that the effects on Scotland would be limited, since Scotland itself was rising by the same amount. England, however, was less fortunate, since it was sinking by 2mm per year.

"There is a God!" a voice cried out from the audience.

Oh, and as it's been a while, here are the the required post Bloggerment blog posting requirements as decreed by the Poker Across Nations Team Subcommittee ( P.A.N.T.S)...

First out does the walk of shame and posts..


The bubble boy/girl must post...



And of course the 2nd place finisher ( despite 2nd being the new 1st!) must post the Bridesmaid dress..



If it's me again though, I'm gonna post this to remind me there are more painful things in life...


One last one.Exclusive footage of fellow blogger and Spurs supporter,The Cloud at White Hart Lane working as a ballboy...

King of Coos Keech!

Result!!! I was going to start with the Coos keech nonsense but I've just had a chat with the ex Mrs A and she has agreed that when I move back home I can still give Step A a lift to school in the morning.My flat is only 10 minutes away and I'm delighted I'll get to see the wee one every day.As a bonus the ex has said she will clean my flat every Friday for me.We're getting on quite well just now and hopefully we can keep that going.


Righty,back to the nonsense....

Mr Cloud and Mr Punch can keep their "hairy gymnast"! I'm the King of Coos Keech!Undisputed Numero Uno google search for it! I'm almost overcome with joy...

My car stereo has packed in!!( with my newly burned Amy Winehouse cd stuck in it) I had to amuse Step A this morning on the way to school by slowing down at every bus-stop full of kids and threatening to wind down my window and shout "say good morning to little Step A everyone" or "the mighty midget is on her way to school,give her a wave!".This induced much gnashing of teeth from Step A!Why this would embarass a 13yr old I've no idea...

I wasn't really in a poker mood last night and ended up watching tv and then Ram Vaswani kicking ass at a high stakes Full tilt table.

I did play two $16 turbos ( 18 player as usual) on Stars and only have myself to blame for two fairly early exits although I felt both my decisions were marginal.

On the first hand I had A8 on the button and limped after four others had done the same.The flop was As 7c 9c and was checked round to me.I would have expected anyone with a better Ace to have raised preflop.A weaker Ace would have bet out on that flop with flush draw out there, therefore I bet out 3/4 of the pot and was surprised to get a caller.The turn brought a 10d and although that completed a possible straight draw ,I had the 8 and when it was checked to me I pushed with my pair and draw,only for the villain to show his J8...

The hand that sent me packing from the next game was J10 in the big blind.Everyone folded to the small blind who completed and we saw a K Q 7 flop.I checked and called the villains 100 bet on the flop and turn before pushing all in on a total bluff after another 100 river bet from him.I had hoped to push him off if he had the Queen or a weak king but he felt his K7 was good and called.Baaaaaa!

Ok,don't forget to register for the Bloggerment game on Sunday.It looks like I'm finally going to win it....because I'm the only entrant so far! It's only $5.50 and any blogger/reader is welcome to play in it.Hope to see you there...