Friday Update

I chased up my sabbatical application yesterday and was told that the offer doesn't apply to my department despite the encouragement I was given by local management.It's a pilot scheme and if successful they will probably roll it out to everyone.( they're hedging their bets in other words) When that will be is anyone's guess but I've not given up hope of it happening at sometime over the next few months.

On the poker front there's not much to report.I've been sticking to the $22's and ( including $100 bonus ) have been hovering around the break even mark despite a decent start to the month.Sometimes I agree with the general poker forum consensus that the games are getting tougher ( 8-9 players still in at level 5 blinds aint good) and other times I still marvel at the fish and their ability to reraise me and call my shove with hands like A8 ( first hand of a $22) when I have QQ.

I reckon I've now got a decent handle on who most of the regulars are at the $22's, although as with Stars I often wonder if they see me in the same light as the volume I put in is tiny compared to the guys grinding for a living.It is important because assigning ranges becomes a different kettle of fish when dealing with regulars as opposed to random fish.

For example last night I raised QQ during one of the early levels,got one caller and a TAG ( Tight/Aggressive) regular shoved all in.I put him squarely on KK/AA or AK at a push,made the call and cursed myself as he showed KK and knocked me out.I did manage to lay down AK to another regulars reraise and this time I avoided his bullets ( pair of Aces) but I still need to learn to trust my instincts more often.

I've persuaded Mother Acorn to come along to the Alea in Glasgow with me tomorrow for the 3pm £22 turbo tournament.I'm not sure of your current mobile number Dudley but if you read this today ( or any other readers) and you're up for some live turbo poker give me a shout in the comments or by text/email.( and no mention of poker blogs if ye do make it!)

I took Step A to her Dads with Nacho earlier and I'm looking forward to a nice chilled out weekend with a trip to the s-mans and live poker on the agenda.It's been over 2 years since I split with her Mum and although I don't see the wee one as often as I'd like I'm glad we're still in touch.( even if only in my role as taxi driver)

If I'm not out tomorrow night I plan on playing in Dr Pauly's PLO game at 9.20pm UK time on Stars.The password is the title of Pauly's new book "Lost Vegas" and I'm looking forward to some "2 cards bad,4 cards good" donkery.On Sunday evening I'll be playing in the RTR league game on Stars and looking to last longer than last weeks early exit.

Back soon...

Sng Coaching?

I'm glad I'm not addicted to poker.It's not as if I surf poker forums and watch training videos when I'm not playing,spend lunchtimes in Borders reading Bluff and other poker magazines, and like to take a complete break by watching the latest EPT coverage on Ch4.No reading poker blogs and reviewing my hand histories.It's just a wee hobby to me...

To the tables and for once I've actually made a decent start to the month.I've taken down a couple of $33's and even managed a winning night on Stars since I last posted.I don't like to generalise, but two games in particular summed up the difference between Party and Stars.I fired up an 18 player,$16 turbo the other night on Stars and it was 22 minutes before the first player went out.( I followed shortly after when my KK fell to feckin' A8!)I was playing on Party at the same time and the $33 I won took a total of 29 minutes to finish.I still love Stars software and the 18player structure but more and more I'm asking myself why I don't just stick to the worlds largest fishbowl.

I also had a fine afternoon yesterday.The company I work for gave us a half day off for Xmas shopping ( our team xmas "lunch" is now at 4pm so they giveth and they takest away)and I went over to my Mums on the way home for some pokery fun.I helped my Mum cash in a few $16's and the good news is that according to Sharky my Mum is now a winning player over the last year.We've come a long way since her raising with K10 from early postion days.

If I can help a wee old lady ( my Mum would lurvvve that description!) win at poker it has crossed my mind that I could help others too.I've had a couple of requests for coaching in the past that didn't come to anything for one reason or another, and I've no idea if anyone would be interested anyway.I don't even claim to be an expert sng player.How can I be as I only play up to $33 buy-in level?! I do however pretty much crush the low level turbos I do play and reckon I could help improve the game of anyone struggling to do likewise.When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher and the thought of combining a bit of teaching with my favourite hobby may be fun.I've not given much thought to any charges or even the style of coaching yet.Low and laidback come to mind though!Leave me a comment or drop an email to delcura03 at yahoo .co .uk if you're interested.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon....

Britbloggerment on Full Tilt tonight!

Thanks to everyone who showed up to play in last nights Britblogger challenge game.Hammerheid and Alcanthang were the winners of the $120+9 tickets and best of luck to both in today's FTOPS event.The fun continues tonight with the Britbloggerment game starting at it's usual time ( 4pm est/9pm UK time) with the usual "donkament" password over on Full Tilt.My game ended last night when I slow played Aces ( called a pf raise from the button) and allowed my opponent to flop the nut straight.Niiiice!

I went on to have another swingy night at the $16's on Stars.I'm not going to review the last ten days or so at the tables.Imagine a poker hell where very few races are won and bad beats just pile up on each other.Multiply that nightmare by a large number and that's how I've run recently.

I was making $4-$5-ish per sng playing 2-3 tables and I thought if I could make at least $2 per game,playing 6-12 tables then potentially I could play 60-100 per day and make a decent profit.I was happy to sacrifice the ego pleasing stuff like having a high roi/a wee shark next to my name on Sharkscope etc for more overall $$.It didn't work out that way!

As I mentioned I do feel that I ran horribly and have never seen anything like it in all my time playing sngs, but I'm honest enough to admit my auto-pilot 8-12 tabling game could probably be a lot better too.The best thing I did since my last post was to take a 3 day break from playing and I'll try and remember that lesson during future downswings.

Of course being a poker degen, although I didn't play, I watched training vids and ( although I don't usually rail games)spent some time watching "Imcastleman" destroy the $16 games.I've played with some excellent ( and some poor!)regulars at the $16's, but Imcastleman is on another planet when it comes to low level turbos and I'd highly recommend searching for him on Stars one night to see how a complete sicko goes about his work!

The good news for me is that last nights swings finally went in my favour and I've managed to claw back my sng losses on Stars for the month by a few $$.I don't recall the last time Sharkscope said I was "Super hot"!! Seems like many many games ago that's for sure!

I do need to quit playing Super turbs on Full Tilt though.My FT roll would be completey down the swanny if it hadn't been for a couple of profitable cash sessions earlier in the month.My FT roll is not big enough to handle the variance these $7.50 and $14.50 ,300 chip super donk fests dish out!

Thanks to a post over at Poker Pains I realised that my $13.5k Bankroll is actually worth a good bit more than it was in £ thanks to the Dollar gaining strength! That consoled me slightly as I watched yet another premium hand go up the spout at Stars recently!

Ok,time to take Nacho out before it rains again.Thanks for reading...

Nine tabling micro turbs

I was too tired to play much poker on Monday night and last night I decided to have some fun at the tables.I opened nine $1.75,18 player turbos and messed about between tiling and cascading them.I think I played about 20 games in total and made a tiny profit overall.I quite enjoyed the fast paced nature of it all and managed to only time out a couple of times.

These days I wonder why I play poker.I feel like I'm torn between playing for pleasure and trying hard to make some decent ( for a low stakes player) profit for the year.

I did warm up for my nine tabling by playing an $11 turbo on Full Tilt.I'd been watching a cardrunners vid on sngs and the pro was talking about how people shoving all in early in sngs usually have a hand like AK/AQ.I had 99 on the button and when folded round to the cut-off,he duly shoved.I decided he wouldn't do that with AA/KK/QQ and that I'd take a coin flip and try to double.He showed AK and my nines held.It felt good to be right about his hand but I'm not sure that overall it was a wise call.

I did enjoy a situation which developed at one of my $1.75 tables when we reached the bubble and one of the players had been sitting out for most of the game.I had a marginal chip lead and began raising every pot when I was first to act or it was folded to me.

The blinds were high and I soon had double chipstack of my nearest rival and I continued to pound the table,raising almost any two cards.This prompted my fellow donks to get very annoyed, asking if I wanted the player sitting out to win and telling me I didn't know what I was doing.With a big stack on the bubble I'd have played the same way regardless of the sitting out player and eventually the most steamed up donk called light and crashed out 5th which I found highly amusing.

Just back after dinner at Mother Acorns where I had to laugh as my Mum whispered to me that she'd slipped £10 in my jacket pocket to pay for her sngicons subscription for the month!( don't tell Father Acorn!)

Ok,thanks for reading....

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...

More long rambling bollocks!

I played the first event of the raisetheriver Wsop last night and ended up being first out when my hammer ( 72 o/s) was crushed by an obviously inferior hand!I raised preflop ,was called by someone with 99 and they just couldn't make the laydown on a ragged 9 high flop after I pushed all in.Very fishy!

In between helping Step A with homework I watched a little of the game as it progressed and once again I was impressed by Kenns aggressive play.Like the great Mr Brunson ( Doyle,not the Grange Hill teacher), Kenns style is to raise often and win many pots uncontested.

This means that when he does raise with a hand like 4h5h he may win 50% ( at least) of the time without showdown, or if reraised, the pot odds and his ( usually large stack) mean he can take a gamble as a 60/40% underdog.

This constant raising means he gets action on his big hands too and although I feel he sometimes pushes a little too hard ,he will not actually put his tourney on the line without a real hand.I bet the table were glad to see the back of him last night when he finally went out!

I played a $16 turbo ( 18 player) and finished 6th after making a really stupid play.One other factor I forgot to mention in Kenns favour is that his play ruffles a few feathers as people don't like being pushed about at the tables.This of course helps him further as people can get emotional and make mistakes.

One of the strongest parts of my game is that I don't get annoyed at being pushed around or outplayed.I simply look to adapt my game and learn from it.For example,if someone shows me a bluff headsup then I don't show them one back the next time I bluff.Better to keep 'em guessing and show them their bluff didn't get any reaction.


I did let a villain get to me last night at that Stars turbo and I've really no idea why he got under my skin.Actually, I think it was the fact he was cold calling raises with rubbish and hitting, which is an absurd reason to get frustrated.( there's a big difference between calling a reraise with 2 live cards and simply being a calling station who flat calls raises)

I had 6k and with 6 left an ITM ( top 4 get paid in 18 player games) finish beckoned until I picked up A10 in the small blind.All folded to me and I raised the villains big blind,he took forever and shoved and I made the donkey call ,crashing out to his AJ.Doh!!


Ok,I promised myself I'd try and cut down on long rambling bollocks posts! Maybe I'll start tomorrow....