Brit Blogger Game Tonight

Until the clocks go forward next weekend the start time is actually 8pm Gmt.Hope to see you there...

Thanks to all who commented on my last post.I was tempted to take the redundancy offer, but in the end I've gambled on staying put for now.There's always the chance of being offered a lot less in future or being "performance managed" out, but that's just a chance I'll have to take.If I had a degree I'd have jumped at it and done a one year post grad teaching course.Maybe next time...

I've not played a lot of poker since my last post.The downswing continues whenever I do play and every time I tell myself that the next hand is a new one and cannot logically be affected by any perceived swings...I get screwed again.Every.Damn.Time!

This is post 997 and I intend to reward my dedicated readers with a self indulgent "reality of a downswing" post which I'm sure will provide a fascinating insight into running badly and may even help boost your poker roll!Ahh the excitement....( or should that be excrement?!)

I do often wonder if I come across as having quite a negative poker outlook.When running better/winning there often doesn't seem much to write about.There's no secret winning formula to witter on about.Big hands hold,more coin flips are won and the profits grow.

In truth I probably need to be more accepting of the fact that despite being a winning player,I can't win all the time and losing days/weeks and even months are all possible.I do worry that I end up making the same excuses to myself that losing players make.Nobody runs as badly as me,maybe it is rigged,it's impossible to beat donks calling with crap,the games are getting far tougher,I'm falling behind the curve blah blah blah.

Of course standing still is not an option and adjustments will always need to be made, but I wasn't kidding when I wrote previously that I actually found it reassuring to go through all my sng exit hands from March and find that it's mainly been the shitty side of variance which has cost me and not my own play.

Casinos and bookmakers have losing days,weeks and even months and I doubt they spend their time whining in blogs about it.Perhaps if I didn't blog I'd just get on with it a bit more rather than analysing every session as I do and feeling like every losing session is the end of the world. I think that comes from my poker ego which is desparate to win and absolutely hates losing!

Not going to moan any more in this post.Poker profits allowed me to eat out for most of last week,have recently paid for my car and are about to pay the whole years council tax upfront at the end of the month.I'd also need to look back to find my last losing month as I honestly couldn't say when it was.If dealing with running like crap over a few hundred ( please don't let it be another 1000 game downswing/break even stretch!)is the price I have to pay to win overall then so be it.Knowing that doesn't make me any more keen to fire up a game and get fcked again but it probably should!

Ok,enough! Thanks for reading.Back soon.Until then,give me Real Love....

Break

As I've got a bit of a stomach bug and as I'm still running worse then ever at the turbos ( lost another $200 yesterday over a ton of games at Stars and up $70 from some Party $22's)I'm taking a blogging break for 10-14 days.I'm not too disheartened by my current sng downswing and will keep battering away at them.It's just the way poker goes sometimes and I need to grin,bear it and grind my way through it.It's been a rough couple of months in sng land but ( and this month may be the first!)I've not had a losing month for as long as I can recall and I need to remember I'm a hugely over bankrolled hobby player and the swings I'm seeing are pretty standard for the games I'm playing.

Ok,thanks for reading,back in a while and here's a post I'd saved from ages ago...

I've almost always stuck to the premise that showing my mucked/uncalled hand is a bad idea as it's giving away free information, and in poker information is like gold dust.I also don't think I'm smart enough to flash my uncalled hands and then deal with the change in table image this may bring.( showing a big bluff for example)

I still believe that, but will now occasionally show if it's folded round to me and I've raised with a premium hand and taken the blinds uncontested.This helps solidfy the tight image I like to project and means the first time I make the same move with garbage ( if required) I should still get some respect.

I'm sure we've all been in situations where the big blind gets a walk, everyone folds, the big blind takes the pot and flashes a premium hand as if to say "you were right not to steal as I had a monster and would have played back at you".I've also seen plenty of cases where the big blind proudly shows some crappy Ace rag hand and you can just tell he would have been proud to defend with that too.

Here's a secret,I don't often defend my big blind in tourneys.I will reraise with a wide range if I feel an individual is taking liberties, but generally I want to be first into the pot and not be the one calling.It may affect the whole dynamic of my game, but I wondered if it's worth proudly showing an average hand to the table if I get a walk in the big blind to try and give the impression I'd be happy to defend with a much wider range than is really true.

On another note poker is a game of never say never and I recall calling a regular fairly shortstacked players raise with 89 off the other day.Although I had a decent sized stack and the pot was offering me reasonable odds,I'm fairly sure in terms of that hand ( even though I knew the regular was shoving very wide) it was an -ev call.( it would lose money long term).I called because I felt I wasn't a huge underdog,I had the chance to take out one of the better players left and I wouldn't lose a ton of equity if I did lose the hand.

I did lose the hand above and was telling myself not to be so daft in future when I realised my "fishy call" meant that I'd gained several walks in my big blind ,most probably due to the fact the solid regular in the small blind was suddenly worried that he couldn't shove on me because I'd call with a very wide range.It struck me that perhaps the occasional very loose call ( when you have enough chips to afford it) may have some value later in the game,even if you actually lose the initial hand.

No Fun

I did enjoy catching up with Al Eleven on the chat thing for the first time in ages last night,but the rest of my weekend has been pretty crap.Johnny Rotten finished the Sex Pistols last ever gig by asking "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" If I hadn't been playing the game of life for 35 years and poker for over three years,I'd be asking the same question.



My mood and poker downswing were so bad last night there was nearly a two word blog post today.I quit.

I played 38 games last night and lost $212 to leave me stuck $300 already this month.I've always known turbos are brutal,however last night took not just the biscuit but the whole damn biscuit factory.I've run badly before on runs of 0/20 and 0/22 without cashing, however even those runs didn't feel as bad as last nights perpetual onslaught.A couple of mislicks also cost me too.I felt sorry for the guy with two pair against my rivered straight until the chips all went to him and it clicked with me that I'd totally misread the board.I also managed to auto fold my small blind ( folded to me)when the big blind was sitting out and I really needed chips.

To continue the theme of doom and gloom, the company I work for are shafting us all by removing our flexi-time and introducing a rota we must adhere to.Of course they're not actually removing our flexi offically as that would mean buying out our contracts.

They state "business needs" as the reason, but although many parts of the business are online ( phone monkeys) we're an offline team and there is just no need for us to have more people covering 8am starts and 6pm finishes.The only consolation is that I deal with business customers and I still won't need to work beyond 6pm or at weekends.

Ok,that's enough whinging and moaning for one post.Don't forget to register for tonights bloggerment on Stars at 9pm...