Whammy Burgers

Not much to say today but if I'm going to post long whiney posts when I get scudded at the tables, I thought it would be nice to balance that up by posting when I've actually had a good night!

Oh I still took some silly beats, but overall I didn't run anywhere near as badly as I have for most of June.I went back to basics at Stars and played two tables at once which allowed me to focus more closely on the action and go with a few reads I picked up.I cashed in four out of the six games I played,winning two and coming 2nd in another.

I've achieved one of my June goals which was to break my Stars roll through the $7k barrier.( for now!)I'm also a step closer to hitting $8k profit on Sharkscope although I'm well aware there could be few swings yet before I do it.

I was still $200 down at Party for the month but managed to pull back a little after playing two $22's and winning one of them ( $100 for 1st).I should probably whisper this but I actually felt I got quite lucky to win the one I took down.I never got my money in as a huge underdog, but hands like QK beating A10 all in certainly helped.

My last stop before bed was a nostalgic visit to my old haunt,the Ladbrokes $50nl 6 max cash tables.Until about August/September last year I would have laughed at anyone suggesting I'd ever leave those juicy cash tables for the high variance world of turbo sng's.Sng's were for donks and cash games were where the real poker got played and proper money was made.That's probably true to some extent but having found my calling at the turbo's,I'm not sure I'll ever truly grind the cash games again.Anyway I was lucky enough double my $50 buy-in after gettting it in with KK v QQ on a 10 high board.Amazingly no Queen fell on the turn or river!

Ok,here's a couple of clips I love from the excellent "Falling Down"...

Eat my raise

The s-man was over last night,although this time without his Play Station 3 and Call of Duty 4.You can't beat getting called a "pussy faggot" online by some 12yr old kid as he merrily walks past and cuts your throat, as you're frantically spinning around wildly, trying to fire some rocket launcher which takes 1/2hr to load...

On the subject of wild kids, I did witness one funny moment in Sainsburys the other day when a wee girl aged around three suddenly piped up with "well if he does that again, I'm just going to stab him in the neck".Cue the shocked Mother asking where that came from and when told,"Jackie",assured the young kid in not very convincing tones that "Jackie" ( whoever she was) would never utter such a terrible phrase.I left the kid adamantly advocating the case that "Jackie" did indeed utter such words!

Grrr, my mobile phone is doing my nut in.Texts are sometimes taking ages to get through and although I'm not one of those 1000 text messages per day maniacs,if someone sends one, I do like to actually know about it and be able to read it!Sometimes it matters more than others.One that was sent at 4.15am last night finally got here at 4.25pm today! Be quicker to stick a stamp on it...

To the poker and after showing the s-man a little of Dauts 20 table video from cardrunners,I fired up a record ( for me) seven tables of $1.75 ,18 player turbs to see if I could handle the pace.I made about $15 from the seven games and quite enjoyed the experience even if the play at that level is barely a step up from play money.

After the s-man left, I joined Rosie and Juice for a few wee turbo sng's and I managed to win two $6.50,18 player games back to back and beat Juice heads up in one of them.The heads up battle was fun but didn't last long as I was lucky enough to be dealt some big hands at the right times.( makes a feckin' change it seems!)

By 3am I was on my own and decided it had been too long since I played a cash game session and promptly lost a $50nl buy-in at Party to a flush chaser.I moved to Bet365 and fired up a $100nl 6 max table where I made the mistake of calling a shortstacks shove after I'd raised with AJ from the button.It only cost me $20 ( he had AK) but I was aware I was still in turbo mode and needed to re-adjust fast or face losing my stack.

I reloaded ( I never sit with 10% less than the max buy-in at cash tables) and won $110 for a $90 overall profit.The cardrunners videos have improved my game and made me far more confident in my reads and less fearful of monsters.( it's ok to be fearful if anyone under 5yrs is reading this!)


GAME #786484227: Texas Hold'em NL $0.50/$1.00 2008-01-06 03:43:11
Table Quorn
Seat 1: HumitoOOo ($215.83 in chips)
Seat 3: Goodnightwaltz ($169.90 in chips) DEALER
Seat 5: hopefullyimprove ($163.50 in chips)
Seat 6: Mendacity ($105.30 in chips)
Seat 8: Barelyl3gal ($100.00 in chips)
Seat 10: kallo1 ($188.45 in chips)
hopefullyimprove: Post SB $0.50
Mendacity: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mendacity [DA S10]
Barelyl3gal: Fold
kallo1: Fold
HumitoOOo: Raise $4.00
Goodnightwaltz: Call $4.00
hopefullyimprove: Fold

>>>Only A10 but Humito has been raising a huge range of hands and I'd like to see a flop.

Mendacity: Call $3.00
*** FLOP *** [H4 C10 C3]
Mendacity: Check
>> As soon as I checked I thought I should actually have made a bet to see where I was in the hand.The problem was that if I bet and was raised he would representing a bigger pair than my TPTK ( Top pair,top kicker) and I would probably have to fold.

HumitoOOo: Bet $10.00

>>fairly standard continuation bet from him and didn't necessarily mean an overpair to the board.

Goodnightwaltz: Call $10.00

>> quick call made me think he was probably drawing.

Mendacity: Raise $28.00

>>>I decided there was a very good chance I had the best hand but it was vunerable and hoped my bet would force 'em to fold.I also like check raising hands like tptk as check raising really big hands ( sets,flopped straights etc) often looks too much like you have the big hand you are representing.


HumitoOOo: Fold
Goodnightwaltz: Fold
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $58.40 Rake $2.10
Mendacity: wins $58.40


This was the other one I took down just before going to bed.

GAME #786493169: Texas Hold'em NL $0.50/$1.00 2008-01-06 03:58:36
Table Quorn
Seat 1: HumitoOOo ($197.18 in chips)
Seat 3: Goodnightwaltz ($140.90 in chips)
Seat 5: 0ne0ut ($100.00 in chips) DEALER
Seat 6: Mendacity ($149.80 in chips)
Seat 8: Barelyl3gal ($102.60 in chips)
Seat 10: kallo1 ($183.75 in chips)
Mendacity: Post SB $0.50
Barelyl3gal: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mendacity [SK HK]
kallo1: Fold
HumitoOOo: Raise $4.00

>> No surprise to see Humito raising again preflop.

Goodnightwaltz: Fold
0ne0ut: Fold

Mendacity: Call $3.50

>>> Out of position against many players I'd be happy to reraise here, but this villain seemed a bit fishy and was almost guaranteed to continuation bet on any flop.

Barelyl3gal: Fold
*** FLOP *** [H4 D9 HJ]
Mendacity: Check
HumitoOOo: Bet $7.00

>> standard c-bet as expected.

Mendacity: Raise $18.00

>> Happy to take it down now or build the pot as I'm fairly sure my hand is good.


HumitoOOo: Call $11.00

*** TURN *** [H10]
Mendacity: Bet $40.00

>> I've no reason to put Humito on the flush draw but I could quite easily have been checkraising such a draw myself and as I now have an overpair to the board and the King high flush draw,I'm betting to take it down now.

HumitoOOo: Call $40.00
*** RIVER *** [H7]
Mendacity: Allin $87.80

>> Was unsure of this shove afterwards, but I reckoned he was bad enough to call with many lower flushes than my King highone.I was happy when he folded and the chips came my way.

HumitoOOo: Fold
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $209.80 Rake $3.00
Mendacity: wins $209.80

After that hand I even managed to resist my "last hand/orbit syndrome" leak and went straight to bed!

Ok,off to drop Nacho off,get my dinner in and play the Bloggerment....

Bloggerment tonight...

Dudley may reckon Rangers will struggle against the mighty Barcelona in the Champions league this season but this man doesn't!

To the poker and once again the poker gods were not on my side at the sharp end of a blogger tourney.I felt I played quite well in the Raisetheriver $10 main event and was feeling confident when heads up with Cogsgoigne at the end.We were both about even in chips when I raised with 4h5h from the button,flopped a flush,called Cogs push all in ( he had nut flush draw) and after a blank turn, I was 2nd again when another Heart hit on the river.I've no problem with Cogs shove and it's just the way poker goes sometimes, but after losing to a rivered gutshot when headsup in the charity game a few weeks back,this was another hefty kick in poker stones!

No point whining though and at least the $33 2nd prize covered the cost of my RTR world series.Hats off to BM and co for organising it.

After a quick break and a herbal refreshment I played in one of the $11, 180 player turbo games I'd read about on Raisetheriver.The top prize in these games is $594 and I fancied a bit of that! My exit from the first one gave me plenty of food for thought.There were 22 left with the top 18 spots paying.I had 9.5k in chips and was sitting about 15th when I picked up AK under the gun.( first to act).As the blinds were 1200/800 with antes, I knew I wouldn't have much fold equity left if I laid down my AK and tried to scrape into the money.18th paid only $18 ( for a $7 profit) and I'd already decided I'd rather gamble and build a decent stack if I got the chance around the bubble.

I reckon the ICM calculations would probably say to lay down AK here and make the money first ( ye old better to make 20% profit than lose 100% of buy-in scenario)but I was after the beeeeg money and pushed all in....only to run into a bigger stacks JJ and go out when my hand failed to hit.

I played one more short 180 player turbo and went out when my Jacks fell to Tens.( ten on flop sealed it).Tens were the hand of the night.I laid 'em down to Mr Clouds AA preflop in the RTR game and pushed BM off a hand with them too in the same game!

I hit the cash tables and although I lost $100 of my Inter take a shot roll ( overplayed A10 on an Ace high flop) I won $80 at Laddies.

Here are a couple of my favourite hands from last night..

In this first one I called a raise with A7s and when the villain led out for half the pot post flop it was a marginal decision to call.I reckoned I could win if I hit another 7 ,an Ace or if a scare card fell.When the perfect scare card which completed both the flush and straight draw it was the perfect time to reraise and take the pot.

This hand was one of my smaller winners but I liked it because I all the factors were in place to get away with a small semi bluff.If someone had the 6 or 7 I would have expected a bet post flop due to the flush draw being out there.When nobody bet and the Ace fell on the turn it was easy to bet the scare card and take it down.

Righty that's it for today.Don't forget to register for tonights Britbloggerment.......