Tuesday 31 March 2009

Multi-Table Madness!



Above is what my laptop is capable of doing with full tilt poker and pokerstars tables. I am certain i will be able to play on 30 tables at a time. Problem is will i be able to profitably? I will play 2 dollars games to find out on each and try and make a profit from them, to get a feel of the tables. I want to do this because if i can freakishly familiarise myself with 30 tables and i decide to play cash, then i am in for a ridiculous amount of rakeback. But this will be very tough as other players will know i am a multitabler and will be re raising me more and more knowing i will likely be playing ABC. As well as the two sites pictured for another respected, reputable online poker site, try this for multi-table madness. Party poker has been beginning to grow on me with their soft tournies and even softer cash games, so i could easily be seen playing there at any one of the mad hours i stay up until!

Anyway i got the laptop today and have to admit that i am very pleased with it. I think that the resolution is its beig selling point as being able to fit 30 rooms, tiled, is an amazing feat. I also like the keyboard as i am typing this as it is quite chushioney but the touch pad has a little too much friction which will hopefully fade away.

I am going to have a sleep in a bit and when i wake up i am going to see if playing 30 tables is reasonable. I think the fact that the screen on my laptop is only 15' makes it a lot harder for this to be a reality so if i am having problems i will refund this for a 17' laptop i could have bought at a cheaper price that i found after i purchased this one. It's not as good with other aspects so if i can deal with the monitor size then this comp is deffo a keeper.

Looking forward to playing later and curious to know whether or not i can multitable hardcore on this thing. I hope i can anyway!
Laterz.

Monday 30 March 2009

I'm a Fish......It's Official

Hey

I have depleted my bankroll to a pittance through just being ignorant to how much i actually had altogether and playing too high a buy in tourney. Also not playing a low variance form of the game to build the br slowly, so i will be doing that when the new laptop arrives.

When my online barclays account has fully updated only then can i see what damage i have done. But i am always one for the challenge and i feel i am going to do well in whatever form of nlhe i take up. In the next few days i will have a better idea of what the plan for building my bankroll can be because at the moment it can be done in a number of ways.

1. Low buy in sit and gos 9, 18, 27, 45, 90 and 180 runners
2. Low buy in multis of 300+
3. Low level cash games 6 man
4. Low level cash games 9/10 man

I'm thinking that the first option will be the most fun for me as i will have that competitive sense of competition in wanting to come first instead of the slog of cash games where sometimes you think, why the hell am i bothering?

The trouble is then to find out what type of sng i will be most profitable in, in terms of runners. I think i will be starting off playing the $20ish dollar ones probably 12 tabling them to get a feel of the game and how i need to adapt to win. I also think i will start by playing the 45 man one on full tilt.

Looking forward to the laptop now. It's coming between 8am and 1pm so i hope it wows me, if it doesn't i am getting my money back! Too much to spend to not be satisfied and i hope it does in ways i can't even imagine.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Good luck and God bless.

Awaiting My Time....

Hello,

Only a day now seperating myself from the baby maker that is my new £1000+ laptop. I hope we have a good relationship and get off to winning ways online. I think i will take to this computer like Maggie Simpson takes to her dummy. Should be a match made in heaven and yes you all would be right in saying i am extremely sad, but hopefully a saddo with loadsa money.

I will only be playing one tourney today on this laptop (borrowed my bros) as its a 2500 euro freeroll with under 30 runners, so lots of value. But it is on Boss Media though so i may have committed suicide before i play my second hand!

Peace.

Friday 27 March 2009

How many tables is too much?

Hey

I was just wondering what everyone thought about this. For everyone that reads this blog, how many tables of poker do you feel you can play without it seriously effecting your performance?

I am coming to realise playing 12+ means you are limited to playing very tight and are not maximising profits by being a skilled player, who can play more hands than just the premium ones. But there are players out there who seem to play quality on many more tables so i don't know.

When the new laptop arrives i will be running some gay tests into where my comfort zone is trying to squeeze out as many tables as possible. Maybe this will vary for cash and tournies, but the idea is i want to be playing as many as possible, very well, to make it easier to make money.

What do you guys think about this?

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Back through Popular Demand!

Well in reality that was non existent but in my dream world i had thousands asking for a new post as they were growing tiresome of not having some insightful revolutionary poker writing to fill up their dreary days but i am here to soothe again.

Lots of things to talk about here dearies. I am now playing in a post Cryptologic world and at first my reaction to it made me lose money. My frustration at having such software be put away made me furious with what else was left to play within the poker world, which obviously made me tilt. Ipoker will grow on me however because there is potential. But what i am starting to find is that there are a load of other sites i was ignoring that i really shouldn't have been. I am now playing ongame network which is good because i am winning on it. Boss media will take an age for me to start winning on because the software really does tilt me beyond belief, their small view is hurrendous and makes multitabling very difficult. B2B is alright but as i hadnt got a nice run going on it i have decided to not play it as much, fickle i know.

Pokerstars is a site i will be using more regularly particularly the sit and gos which i think i have a superior edge in and will love to dominate them. I feel all the crytpo grinding of multis was great prep for my now new found quest to dominate the sngs on full tilt and Pokerstars, and i will document my upward ascent for you all. Bodog and ultimate bet have good softwares but they are letting me play for security reasons and want me to fax them ID which i cant be bovered to do so that is on the back burner. Cake network is in the same boat as boss media in that the software is bordering dire but this is more to do with the size of their smallest screen which is too big. And i can't quite think of any other notable networks. Cassava will be one for the future but has the same problem as cake in that their smallest room size is too big but these won't factor too largely when i have the mammoth laptop that i just ordered from dell.

It is the XPS which set me back £1500 which will be delivered to me in the next two weeks. The reason i was prepared to pay so much was the fact that its resolution is 1920x1200 which in laymans terms means compared to my current 1200x800 res laptop i will be able to fit in fuck loads more tables making my profitability sky rocket when i get used to playing on 20+ in a good way. Also was willing to buy one because the one i am using now is cancerous, its literally falling off its hinge and the monitor keeps on flicking on and off which was really annoying yesterday while multitabling.

But that didnt stop me from coming second in two $33 200 man multis for a combined profit of $2000, which was lovely. Basically paid for my laptop. But i am still behind in terms of my BR because of the tilt i had post crytpo. Still it is in the region of £7000 so i will be alright with getting that up (wahey) very soon. Got a Irish open satellite as well tonight for the main event, its a 1/16 chance i believe. I won a caribbean cruise with will hill at a 1/20 shot last year so i know i am capable, all about luck though, and if i will have it.

Plan for the next week or two before the mammoth laptop comes........I will 4 table tournies all week at a casual sorta rate taking it easy before the madness with my new laptop begins. I fear your other players' safety when i do have it because i may cause suicide attempts and getting people to cry because i will be hurting people that bad. Not that i have a big ego here its just truth innit :P

GL peeps and i will look to update the blog at a much higher rate.

Peace.

Monday 16 March 2009

Getting along nicely, Bankroll Update!

Hey

I had a break even day on saturday being really annoyed at my play and giving up the opportunity of winning bigger by being too tired and irritable. Should never play under those circumstances and yesterday i wasn't tired but just annoyingly irritable. I think it may have a lot to do with my glasses prescription because the screen is looking increasingly blurry and that may be spurring me on to play worse. So i have decided to book an appointment for another prescription and will see if that makes a difference.

A little worrying though because before i started playing long hours on the computer i had 20/20 vision and as i like to play football its a little annoying that i may not have the best of sight. But i guess it's a small price to pay if i make a fortune.

I am having a break from poker until i get my essays done which are due in on thursday. Uni is open until midnight on each day so i am not quite sure when i will get em finished but what i do know is that i am finding it so hard to concentrate and get them done. Just so easy to stray away and make some money online instead of doing actual work for a change which poses a much greater challenege. I need to defeat my laziness towards this before it is too late and i no longer have the opportunity to get a good passing grade. I know it is possible to couple poker with uni but i have been showing a tendency to disregard the latter as its a lot harder but from now on i will show discipline to have uni as a bigger priority over poker. At least for the next year and a half anyway. By then i will have a good degree and a nice back up qualification if i, get bored/become shit at, poker.

A bankroll update for all of you who care. I am now up to £10000 which is lovely. What i will do with that roll i am not too sure. I am quite skilled at playing 0.50/£1 and may multi table those cash games until i have enough confidence to move up to £1/2. I quite like the idea of having 100 big blinds in reserve while 12 tabling cash because you really aren't worried about a downswing as you are able to take the hit. The profits would be a little small each session compared to my whole roll but i can't forget what i have come from and if i have a positive 0.50/1 session i could be looking at £200 profit. Aside from that i will be grinding low limit tournies £10-£50 and looking to dominate the new forums i am entering, which will be focussed primarily on Boss media with Parbet and Ipoker with William Hill.

Good Luck one and all, and my next update will be when i am destroying Ipoker and Boss Media!

Peace.

Saturday 14 March 2009

Up another $900

Title says it all. Short post today. Half and half as a part of the 4th place finish in the £6K GTD on crypto for £350 and with playing various limits of NLHE on crypto as well. I'm expecting the slump to happen soon.

Friday 13 March 2009

The £220 Empire Success!

Hey Ho

It has taken me a day to realise just how increadibly lucky i was to get as far as i did because i sucked out more times than Michael Jackson has had a face opp. Well. To start from the beginning i suppose.

Turned up at the Empire casino with £500 in pocket and about 3 hours ahead of the event start so i thought i would sit down at a cash table. Not a good idea. I got dicked for £300 from plays that i thought weren't made at the stakes i was playing and to be fair a part of the loss was to do with my own idiocy in not recognising the retardedness and in increasing the pot size when i could have played small ball. So not a great start. After the session i had an hour to spare before the event started so i rang up a mate who i know has time for my bad beat stories and for some reason he has patience with me. Some would think he revells in my poker bad luck as if to say get a real job you fucker, im on nigh on min wage and you think ure phil ivey, but i don't think he's like that anymore as he realises i might be a decent player. He gave me his best wishes for the tourney and off i went into the tourney room to get going. And get going i did!

Second hand in i am dealt 33. I try to raise but i didn't announce it and only put in a single chip, rookie error but i will get there. 3 more people call and i see a flop. A 3 8 rainbow. I am loving this and get a raiser into me i re raise he calls. Turn 8. He checks i bet out he calls. River 3. Quads!!! He checks, i bet out he folds an ace. So i nice little introduction.

I soon realise from looking at the clock and after playing an hour that this tourney doesn't allow for much play and our stacks according to how many hands will be played and what the chip sizes will be meant i was taking marginal spots to get a big stack or bust, because i wanted a final table to make my time worthwhile.

A7clubs. I raise 3x bb and get one call. Flop K 8 2 two clubs. I check, he bets out a quarter of his stack and having the same stack i re raise all in thinking i am live on my Ace and the 9 other clubs. He dilly dallys and calls with AK no club. Drawing to 9 outs so around 35% to double up i think. Turn is a dud and the river is a club.

Blinds are getting higher and i find AJ of spades. The big blind is short on chips so i elect to flat call as i want to keep it small in case i get a re raise, whereby my AJ shrivells up. 5 other callers i believe behind me, and then the short stack big blind pushes all in. I am on a stack of 9000 hes pushed for 3000 blinds then are currently at 150/300. I gather that the big blind has recognised weakness with the limps and is pushing with a marginal hand for value so i re raise all in to get the undoubtedly weak limpers behind out. And the showdown is AJ vs KQ, he hits his queen and i am hurt. Blinds get up to 200/400 by now and i have a stack of 7000 and see 52 on the button, everyone folds to me, i have a tight SB and BB so i raise 1200, both call, eeeeeek. Flop 2 10 7, both check to me and i fire 2750 to try and save myself, but sb pushes all in and i fold. So after that misplayed hand and some few hands later i am down to 2850 with blinds still at 200/400 and i find A9 in early position. I push all in. Everyone folds up until dealer button who stalls and folds, then the sb stalls for even longer and starts asking me questions, i'm thinking he has worse so i am enticing him to call with statements like my hand is pretty good wouldn't mind a call, and the honesty in my voice was natural he sensed this and folded A10, BB folds as well, so i take it down. The dealer button folded 77 which shocks me but hey ho.

Next hand after the break i find AQ on the big blind, the button raises me and i push all in he shows A8 and i win it. Some hands later a very shortstack pushes all in, i re raise all in to isolate with A10 and everyone else folds, he shows 108diamonds and i win that. So by the table change i am on 10 big blinds.

Second hand in after table change i find JJ on the big blind everyone folds to the dealer button who raises me 3x BB i move all in and he calls with 99 and it holds. Move table again and second hand in someone moves all in from utg with a 12 BB stack and i find QQ i push all in to isolate and hes done it with A6!! It holds and i have a very nice 30xBB stack. It gets whittled down however when a bluff utg raise with 7 on the table is called by the SB who thinks about shoving but doesnt. Flop Ace high when i have only 7J and he bets out all in and i fold. Annoying. It wasn't too much of a bad play but in hindsight i should have just waited for a nice hand to push with, but if it worked i could have started stealing some chips pre flop. As it stood i had a 12 BB stack which was soon to be a 9BB stack with the blind increase soon coming. I find 44 from the cut off with all action folding to me, i thought i should push and did, get insta called by a 5BB stack and the sb Folds AJ. Showdown and i am up against QQ and don't improve. The SB would have won the side pot against me if he played so i would have been out. Next two hands i fold with a 4BB stack which is odd but had to be done, then on the SB i get 85 and all action folds to the dealer button who goes all in, i call figuring i am live and the BB will fold and both were true. I was up against A9 and hit a 8 high flop which holds to double up. Next hand on the dealer button i get J9 and decide when all action folds to me to push with my 10BB stack, hoping for folds from weak hands. The BB calls though and he has A9, i am truly fucked. But a KQJ flop helps, the turn was a Q which makes a King Ace or Ten as an out but they miss and now i am sort of back in contention.

Next hand funnliy enough i was not involved in but it involved two relatively big stacks going all in pre flop, one donkey 10Khearts play and another with AA. Flop Ah Qh 10c turn 6c river Jh by which the AA guy shouts yes thinking his Full house is good against the flopped straight, most of the table agrees then everyone thinks wait a second that other guy has a Royal Flush hasn't he? lol

Table change happens and we are down to the last 18, i have a 11.5 BB stack with 70000 with blinds at 3000/6000. I look down and see QK suited from mid position with all folded to me i raise to 12000 as a steal more than anything really and the next guy to act pushes all in for his last 17000, folds around to me and i call. He has AA with one heart.

Flop A 7 9 two hearts. Pretty much has the biggest stranglehold possible with two more hearts giving him the nuts.

Turn J hearts so i am drawing to 3 outs now 10hearts no good

River 10 clubs

THANK YOU! lol

Soon after this i make a steal and it goes through. Then two hands later i get QQ i raise it up to a suspicious 11000 and get two callers, flop Q 4 8 rainbow. The SB and BB both check and i check as well. Turn A. SB shoves all in for 60000 more i have him just covered and call he turns over AK and is out.

Final table.

6 people left when the first big hand comes in i get J10 hearts and limp from early position, announcing "i want to see how you guys react to a limper" the dealer button then announces raise soon after and it folds around to me. He has a lot of chips but under my count and has put 1/4 of his stack in, i dwell and call. Flop 3 10 K, i check and he pushes all in for the rest of his chips leaving me with 40000 if i call and lose with blinds at 4000/8000. I think pre flop he is relatively weak because i thought he was picking up on my speechplay, but even if he isn't my 10 holds up against a lot of deserate looking all ins. AQ AJ, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55. Plus i have a read he's weak and make the hero call. He shows 77 and i win the pot by the river. not much else happens really. I make some good steals and re steals post flop and play well but i see that with 4 remaining everyone is holding a fairly even amount of chips.

i was on 194000, second was 192000, third 180000 and fourth on 120000. Blinds were at 10000/20000 by this stage so i settle on a slightly unfairly weighted deal in terms of how much the small stack got in £4200, 3rd got £5300, second £5500 and i got the same. It was 5am in the morning i felt my game slipping through tiredness and had no balls to continue with such short stacks. I took the money and ran. If the blinds were lower though i would have undoubtedly stayed because i felt i was much better than 2 of the other players and on equal level with the 3rd. But i am happy with the result and know that i got lucky many a time to win this money. But i am not complaining!

Note to self though in never playing another tourney with a structure like this unless i have to because it was crapshoot city for the most part.

Peace.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Deal made in the £200 at Empire

Made the top four as chip leader, and we decided to split it four ways weighted on our chip stacks. So i walk away with £5500 from a £220 investment so ain't half bad. Details to follow but right now i need sleep from playing for 10 hours through the night

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Playing the Empire tonight

Hey

I am taking what can only be said as a gamble tonight in playing the £220 tournament at the Empire Casino, as there is no way that this is a comfortable investment. I have been using a lot of the money i have made recently, and have a usable bankroll of around only £3K so a £220 shot is a little unwise, but as its rare i am going to go with it. However if i don't feel up to my best later on today maybe a little tired or can't be arsed i just won't play it. Don't want to give people dead money.

On another note crypto is closing this sunday and i am going to be really sad to see it go. It basically weined me into being a decent player from what i can only say was a crap player and i have come out better for it. I have taken a lot more money out of the site than i have put in and would have to say the tournaments there are ideal for the low stakes tournament player. With loose players, you really could earn a fortune from grinding the twenty and tenner games they have and the odd thirty and fifty also.

I fear now that Ipoker and boss media (where will hill and parbet are going respectively) will prove a tougher challenge with harder games but hopefully after acclimatising i can get back to winning ways.

Also more importantly i have to make sure i am a uni student first and a poker player second at least for the next 1 and a half years so i can get a 2:1 degree and have a lovely safety net if poker is getting too boring or if i all of a sudden become absolutely rubbish in it. Going in today to finish some work off and get some started, and will have the tournament starting at 7 in the centre of london as a lovely thing to look forward to. Well i hope so anyway!!

Good luck to all of you playing tonight, and most of all i guess good luck in life! (cheesy i know but fuck it i am in that sorta mood)

peace.

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Recap of the weekend and yesterday

Hey ho

I am currently in uni so cant relay the exact hand history of the travesty that happened to me on sunday night in the sunday 35K, but i assure you its fresh in the memory for me to tell you quite accurately. First of all i need to set the scene. I was around 40th of 80 at the time when i decided to go completely crazy in opening every single pot i could with any two cards from two gapped connectors upwards so as to try and accrue as many non-showdown chips as possible. This was spurred on by the fact i had made the money in this competition 3/4 times in the last month essentially only getting double my buy in, so i didn't want to go out unless it was in a hail of bullets!!!!!

It started so well. I was on 25K in chips and had it as my goal to get to 40K without a showdown by stealing chips pre flop or if i do get a call, by outplaying them post flop, and you know what it worked! Had 69 suited coming in to save the day on a stone cold flop bluff and had many other crap hands becoming goldust. However this wasn't without getting re popped around 6 times of which i had to fold each time because i had nothing. I was literally opening 100% of the flops i could.

I had gained the maniac image of the table with people obviously praying to get a hand against me and milk me dry, they obviously didn't know i had a method to my madness. Problem was i wasn't getting any genuine hands to capitalise on my reputation. regardless i was now on 50K in chips and in 2nd of 25, so i had made the money, and then finally i get a genuine hand!

I get JJ in mid position and all the action folds to me, so i did what i did every other time this spot came to me and raised the pot up 3X big blind to 6000, everyone folds to the big blind who is on 40K in chips and around 5th place. He has obviously been becoming increasingly upset that i have been stealing his blind and he puts in a bizarre re raise to 22000, which is half his stack.

I had to think for literally a nano second to realise that if he had a genuine hand he would had re raised much smaller to try and entice the call from me, or even to just flat call as he knew i would continuation bet the flop. But no, he raises me massively, which shows massive weakness in my eyes. I don't have him down as a player of relative intelligence to confuse me with such an odd bet knowing i will find it as weak, so i re raise him all in with the Jacks. He stalls for a while, as if knowing he is beat but because he has been a spaz in his re raise he is committed tcall the rest of his 20K in chips and turns over AJ. The flop brings an Ace and i don't spike my one outer by the river so i am crippled on chips. With less than 5 big blinds soon after i find A* and go all in and for good measure get dcalled by the same guy who takes me out with AJ lol

If i had won that pot i would have been dominate chip leader and i feel that i wouldn't have given anyone else a chance to take me off that crown with so many chips to bully the others that just want to move up in the prize money, and to the players that were good and wanted to make moves i would just outwit them and put the pressure on them like never before. So it was a little disturbing to receive that beat because there is a part of me that thought if i didnt play that hand, i may well have found it safer to just steal pots pre flop and move up without showdowns. But i was there to win and found a spot to nearly double my chip stack as a 70/30 favourite so i am fine with what i did. Just annoying as it was in the biggest tourney i enter on a weekly basis and would have loved to take down the £10,000 first prize. Yes you heard me right, £10,000 smackeroons.

The day sunday on the whole was a £400 down day which wasn't good but was by no means the end of the world considering my last two days of play where i was up £1400.

Yesterday brought back the heater whereby i was back to my best as i was well rested and felt on top of my game. I had entered 7 tournaments and final tabled 4 of them the $1.2K GTD the £1400 GTD, the £1000 GTD and the £6K GTD of which i came 5th, 2nd, 2nd and 5th respectively. The two where i had lost heads up i was very frustrated with my play, as i wasn't showing it the necessary concentration because i was showing too much attention to the £6K where i was chip leader with 6 to go, first place getting £1700. Again with the bad beat story lol. I get it all in with second in chips with QQ against his JJ, i found his call very loose and was very happy when he turned his hand over. The Jack on the flop though changed matters and i didn't improve so i was crippled in chips and managed to sneak 5th place. Rather annoying hoever i have to be happy with another up day to the amount of £600

I am having a break tonight to go out and get pissed so crypto tourney regulars can breathe easy :) and it will be a well deserved break to meet up with mates.


good luck people!

Sunday 8 March 2009

Up another $700 today!

Hey Ho

I won the NTX £1400 GTD by luckboxing my way out of a paper bag heads up to take the title and £442.20. Apart from that i made a couple of final table appearences that would have had me just a little over break even before the NTX result came in so the latter was a pivitol result.

My tourney game is coming on leaps and bounds but i still notice that i am sometimes ill prepared to have a tourney stint, sometimes being too hot in my room aggrevates me and i steam both literally and in poker terms. Sometimes i look at the screen so long that my vision impairs (i think i need stronger computer glasses)(Yes i have computer glasses and WHAT!) Also the trips back and forth from the toilet makes me lose my trail of thought, which is never good. When i am on my game however, i make logical moves most of the time that have to get unlucky for me to get out. But i do fall privvy to some information i think i have on a player, like say i think he bets out on flops very weak, i would take that info and throw caution to the wind sometimes, when really a lateral play would suffice.

Hope the heater continues as i would like to think i am good enough to say i am good enough to be a full time poker tourney pro. I don't think this is the case, but i am getting there.

Peace.

Saturday 7 March 2009

£742 Profit today in tournies

Hey

I am chuffed with how things went today. I won a 1500 euros GTD on parbet and came second in the £1400 GTD NTX midnight on crypto along with other cashes that helped as well. I feel in the zone at the moment with my tourney game but am getting increasingly restless about my cash game.

I definately need to sit doen and map out where i am going wrong with it because it seems to me at the moment i am doing nothing glaringly wrong but i bet at closer inspection there are big leaks. I know some already but would have still thought i ould be making a sizeable profit but at the moment i am only up a small bit, bordering on breaking even. Which is ok i guess because i do get rakeback but still i definately need to see whats going on in that front.

I hope tomorrow i make more money in one day because if i can maintain £500+ days, i will be rich i tellsya! I kno it won't happen but somewhere in between break even and what i did today will be fine! Gl at the tables.

Peace.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Live tourney Fish!

Hey

I blew up tonight, and all because of my live game inexperience.

Clock was 25 mins, 8000 starting stack, antes introduced after 4th level. So the tourney was gonn get going quite rapidly. Second hand into the event i get 87unsuited on the blind, folds around to the dealer button who raises to 150, SB folds and i call, blinds 25/50.

flop 10 9 4 rainbow

i bet out 250 as a stopper bet to make my draw relatively cheaply by the turn, but i get re popped to 900. I think for about a minute and half on this one. My conclusion was that she was all over this flop and if i call the big raise and hit the straight on the turn, i could eventually get all her chips. As well with 8000 to start if i missed the draw on the turn i had plenty of chips to recouperate. So because of the implied odds i called.

Turn 6

Bingo. I Check, she bets out 1700 i re raise to 4000, she calls.

River 7

Ouch not a nice riverm but can she really put me on an eight here. Pretty committed now so i push all in for my last 3000ish and thought going all in will disguise it more than a 2000 bet, she calls and had 1010 for the set. I double up to the tournament leader very quickly. I liked my play here because of the implied odds, it makes sense to want to accrue a lot of chips to bully early on and calling a draw for so much on the flop will give you a loose image amongst your foes which i can exploit.

Soon after though i have Aces utg+4 and already have a raiser to 200 and a caller in front, i only raise to 600, which was a mistake in my opinion and i knew it at the time as soon as i did it, and get one more caller behind and the other two make the call so 3 others to the flop.

J 10 4 2 spades

i get a check and then a pot sized bet in front, im thinking to myself now that that is a drawy board i only have 600 invested and still have loadsa chips to play with for the next hand if i fold. But i just couldn't as i was feeling erratic (lack of sleep maybe?) and re pop to 4000, i get two folds behind and then back to the raiser who flat calls. I have him on a flush draw here.

Turn K of spades.

OUCH. He checks this to me i think, and me thinking he only has 1000 behind set him all in, in the hope i was wrong with my instinct, but also cos i thought i had him basically all in anyway. But i was Wrong!! He had 4200 behind on that turn. If i stopped to check that i would have given the pot up to him. Too used to seeing chip stacks online as clear as day. For some reason i thought he was really short. To my horror the dealer asked for 4200 more from me when he turned over AJ of spades. Gutted! I make the situation 52/48 in my favour on the flop. A situation i shouldnt be gambling on when i let three others see a cheap flop, if i re popped to say 1000 pre then i am committed to get frisky.

This tilted me sooo much as i felt i could take the beat on the turn on the chin, but thinking he had 3000 less than what he really had made me furious.

Soon after i am out after betting all in on a turn with three spades representing a flush, with the other guy having none of it calling with two pair.

I am happy i learnt the lesson of getting a good amount of sleep prior to an event and also to take your time in knowing the whole situtation of stack sizes. It was the mistake that tilted me tonight and after it, i was beating myself up to the point where i wanted to go home. I had enough. £165 that lesson cost me and i think that is a relativey cheap one tbh. Could have done it in a higher buy in.

Back to the online grind tomoz, ith the intention of playing a 150 or 200 pounds tourney again soon as i want revenge.

peace

Playing the £150 at the Gutshot tonight

Hey

Will be playing live tonight to spicen things up a little as the same internet grind can get monotonous. Doing it more for entertainment than for the money, as i do enjoy playing live, and i seem to play better when i just look to outplay opponents with a disregard about the money. There is going to be around 150 runners i believe, so prizepool at around £22500 so guessing first is around a third of that. It's a decent amount to strive for at around £7000, but going by the 250 tourney they had yesterday its gonna last nigh on 12 hours! and it starts at 8. Madness. Whats even more mental is that i have only had 3 hours sleep, got woken, and haven't managed to get back to sleep. So i am going to be truly fucked later but i knew this when i paid for the entry over the fone about 10 mins ago, and it's a little test for myself, if i do win this everyone else entering should be ashamed of themselves.

On the internet grind front yesterday i was in the last 30 of the three biggies across the littlwoods and crypto networks spazzing out on 2 of them and getting rele ul in the other. Annoying because i was playing some sound poker for the most part and would have loved a big score.

This morning i lost £200 in a 2 hour spell, playing ok in it with most of the losses coming from a £200 pot all in with QQ against AK, and having a threes full house getting beat by eights full. COuld have got away from the latter as the oppo raised £50 on top of a pot of a measley £8 but a flush was completed so i thought he may have had that. Not to be and pain ensued. Oh well. Tonight should be fun anyway. I believe that the action will be blogged by Gutshot forums at

http://www.gutshot.com/bforum/forumdisplay.php?f=32

if your interested. For now i'm gonna attempt some sleep and then trot down there to play in some cash games. Gl ppl.

peace

Monday 2 March 2009

Life and Poker

Hey

Big dissappointment to find myself hardly making a dime in the month of february. It started so well with a few good tourney wins, but it was tilted away while i wasn't in the mood to be playing or playing limits just too high for my roll. Trying to get £50000 for the year now looks like it won't happen at this rate and the main cause for this is that tournaments tilt me. If i grind tournaments for a living i will be a losing player because the swings get to me and affect my skill towards them. How i am going to solve this is by only playing a maximum of three a night, if that, of the tournies i feel i have an edge over and of good enough relevance for me to want to play properly in them. I will trial this for the next two weeks but this too has a glaring problem.

I could spend 9 hours in total playing cash and make a profit of say £120 for the day which is good, and then in the 3 tournaments i am looking to play nightly, im digging into 3/4 of those profits towards a high risk investment. On the back of say 5 days of no tourney results my bankroll might be stationary and further frustrate me. But i am going to trial this to see what happens, maybe the combination will help settle me and i will play a better cash game as a result and increase profitablility like never before.

I was on for £1K a week just grinding 12 tables of the 0.5/1$ limits and its the tourney virus that has prevented me from sticking to that lovely track, as without tournies i feel lost and in comparison, cash can seem so generic. So the combination of the two artforms will hopefully come with great success.

Also another important thing to add is that over the past two weeks i haven't lived much of a life. I have gone out at least 3 nights a week which sounds about normal but it just seems all i do is stay in my room and play poker. Im 19 and life could pass by without me knowing it so i will be taking strides towards getting some sort of balance. It sounds like i am depressed but believe me i'm not i am worried im too relaxed in the environment i have set for myself.

Exercise is so desperately needed as well as i have maintained a comfortable state of chubbiness for quite some while now and see myself ordering a lot of takeawys and annoyingly find that i am ordering more each time which can't be good lol. Exercise will also get the endorphines (your body's natural happiness drug) running around the body and that will settle me in times of bad beats so that i can brush them off and play as if i was a robot.

Speaking of robots, I was thinking earlier i had picked up the best description in the world on the game and that is that being human in pro poker is a liability apart from one's natural intuition (or gut feeling) aside from that a freakishly robotic approach helps one succeed, away from emotions that can only tarnish your game. Even happiness, as this only heightens the sense of misery when you experience a bad beat, as you knew what is was like to be joyful and in contrast it feels much worse to be sad/angry. It's 5.40am and i haven't slept yet so apologies for the philosophy i feel i can all of a sudden embark on you, i hope it doesn't leave too much of a lasting impression and hope i can still garner respect as a player lol.

Back to the reformation anyway. Discipline is now my number one priority. I am going to set a loose daily plan each morning for how many hours i want to play in that day and how many tables i will play and i need to stick to it. Need to treat poker as if it really is a job that i can't afford to fuck up. Possibly act as if i have starving children to feed, struggling for money to pay the bills which will in turn get my killer instinct going and stop me from wandering away from playing properly, because you know what, there are no excuses. There is variance but this is so blatantly made worse by our reactions to it and a lot of people don't seem to notice it. Get get a bad beat and it can take a certain amount of hours/days to get back to playing a profitable game, as you were still mentally reeling over the bad beats, and chasing wins, when really you should have patience to let it come to you.

I seem to know all the ins and outs of what is going wrong with my game but seem to just carry on in my ways regardless. Not anymore. As of today i have to change. I am going to play poker responsibly with a level head, with no drink or any mental instability and i am going to make sure i give out as much pain to the losing player as possible. Sadism in this sense is a good thing, and in being a rampant sadist i may well have some fun in milking a clueless flush draw chaser, or value bet bluffing a tight grinder on the river who thinks I must have made my draw because I'm betting so little.

I am looking forward to changing everything, from the amount of exercise i get, to how much of a social life i have to how many hours i put in and so on. With this transformation should come results. If the wonga in my account is always rising then i don't give a shit how it got in there i just need to continue doing the do. Tournaments will try to fuck me over but i feel if i keep them on a tight leash i can use them to my advantage and couple them nicely with a solid cash game.

Big question is then, is it onwards and upwards from here? Or is it a rapid descent into having to get a real job for minimum wage? I guess you can place your bets in the comment section.

peace.

Sunday 1 March 2009

Massive tourney grind!

Hey

I have decided that enough is enough with tournament grinding and have seen the light in the way of cash games as the best way to make a living from the game, maybe sit and gos are also good but haven't been too exposed to them. As this is the case i am going to give the tournies a really good send off as it is going to be my last pure tourney grind in a long while so i want to go a little mental.

My bankroll stands at around £5000 and after tonights grind it will stand at around 4 fifths of that if all goes tits up lol. Without further ado here are the tournies in question.

40,000 euros GTD on devil fish for 100 euros 20.00 Ant040689
$20,000 GTD on party for $55 at 21.00 anup returns
$100,000 GTD on littlewoods for $140 at 20.00 Ant040689
$125,000 GTD on pstars for $55 at 20.00 anup returns
$50,000 GTD on full tilt for $163 20.00 Ant040689
£35,000 GTD on will hill for £110 20.00 Ant040689
super series (£2500 added) for £12.50 will hill at 18.00 Ant040689
£6,000 GTD on Parbet for £33 21.10 Gaughan
**$50,000 GTD on cake for $109 at 20.00 Gaughan
**$100,000 GTD on cake for $162 at 22.00 Gaughan

so wagering 100 euros + $684 + £152.50 = £718.82

** might back out of the cake ones though as i am using a notebook and the cake rooms take up a lot of space on my 15'' screen so may have to give it amiss, unless i use another monitor hich i may well do.

I am doing this as a sort of release from the tourney scene. If i win big its all going towards moving up the limits in cash, if i don't cash in any tourney i will grind on the 0.5/1 limits and move on up from there. So i am sorted regardless.

It is a little maniac-like but it's the way i roll, and these tendancies which i once layed upon the blackjack rooms or roulette i now need to somehow use in the poker world, and this is it methinks. Looking forward to it, and need to get some sleep in before it starts, as i only had 3 hours last night :(

By the way i have left my player ID next to the tournaments so you can see ho i am getting on in them in real time, might be an intriguing investigation lol.

Anyway good luck to you all at the tables tonight and in the future.

Peace.