Holiday Update

Not sure if I should admit to playing on Christmas Day even if the rest of the family had gone to bed... alright I didn't. There, feel better now I have denied it.

Entered the Betfair Forum HU tourney and played my first round match against seasider1. While trying to sit down for the tourney I was gatecrashed by sweatpollock. 3 hands in I get AA, so a 3xBB raise goes in, which is reraised. Can't believe my luck and we end up all in pre-flop and he has Q10o. He hit trips on the flop to end the game. Things don't always work out like you think they should.

Eventually managed to sit down with the right player. Only came from behind once when I pushed A4 against a mid-pair and hit the A, apart from that the chips didn't really go in unless I thought I was ahead. The 77th and last hand was the 22 monster, which I had folded earlier in the match, up against A3 - all in pre-flop and a 2 hit the flop to see me through to the 2nd round against the_yarv or chivu.

On the cash tables, I have been plugging away on the PLO and PLO8 tables on Sun, with my balance now up to $206. Not really played any STTs or MTTs recently on there, apart from a £400 gtd this morning, where I came 27th trying to steal a pot as the blinds started to creep up.

1x$5 STT on Mansion for no result. Traffic on that site is quite low at the moment, but it does seem quiet most places at the moment.

The Sun Always Shines on my PC

So, have had my account on Sun for nearly 3 weeks now and currently, bank is standing at $141 up from starting roll of $100. Had a nice couple of days on Omaha and HiLo that has turned what was a stationary balance into one that is going up. Tonight I had to wait to get on the .15-.25 table for about 20 minutes, then when I was on I had 3 tables up and accidentally closed it and lost my seat. Instead of wanting to wait for another 25 minutes I moved to the .5-1.0 table and made 50% before deciding it was really too high for my roll and left. That being said, I did not think the standard of play was very good, it was in fact clearly worse than the lower stakes table.

Have not played much on the STT front - 1x £5 yesterday where I identified the A-rag monkey and proceeded to get knocked out by him on the bubble. At least I knew he was the most likely to hit a runner runner and because of that it did not put me off my game when it happened.

On Mansion I have played 1x 9 handed $10 stt since the last update - it took 90 minutes to get heads up then lost to a draw - but a cash is a cash. Oppo was a right classless twat who was clueless about how to play, but brilliant at winding up all the other players on the table. They all ended up tilting their stacks away, he kept quiet when heads up until after the winning card had been dealt, thankfully.

Have not played on Betfair recently, even though they have sorted out the delays between hands. Will go for the Christmas HU forum comp and see how it goes before deciding whether to wait for an improved interface to turn up.

A New Dawn

Courtesy of dibble's link I now have a shiny new Sun Poker account. It's nice to be back on Crypto and I managed to copy over the old notes file I had from Betfair I. This tells me that there are still a lot players active on there I have been playing for more than a year. Initial results have been good, though I did let dibble talk me into playing the ntx express first night, which saw me go out to AJ calling my all in with KK as the blinds ratcheted up. Have since managed to move my account back into positive territory playing STTs and a little bit of cash, plus managed a 2nd place in a £2 mtt, though not that many runners and I did tilt a little at the end managing to lose when ahead by playing too loose.

Betfair gave me some free money, so my account there is back up to £16 from £1.80 last week and will now aim to win 5 STTs on the trot to win a BF Santa prize. Played a $2.50 STT earlier, made a poor call with J9 vs AJ and hit the 9 I needed to double up and tilt the eventual 2nd place. Rocked up a bit after that, though the table thought I was playing rubbish cards and under-estimated me right to the end when my 99 was good enough to beat AQ heads-up. Might have to try a more loose aggressive approach again and see what happens.

Mansion account is £15 in credit, cashed in 3 out of 5 last STTs, but the rake on the $5 tourneys is $1, so I need to push up to the next level asap or stop playing on the site. Interface is nice, BF could have bought it instead of Pokerchamps and done us all a favour, still could IMO. Traffic is a little light, which makes game choices a little limited, but the small stake STTs fill eventually and the standard is woeful.

same old same old

so, can't say I have been playing well lately. just read highstacks latest blog update and could copy and paste the exact same paragraph here. however, you should read his blog, it's a compelling read and much better written than this one.

have burned through the rest of my balance on betfair, so am going to give that a rest for a week or two. have found myself playing against 2 opponents more than once when I thought there was only one other still in the hand. don't like the interface at all and the 12 plays don't really appeal either.

have played a couple of $12 rebuys on the tribeca network, went close both times. first time went out unnecessarily 10 places from the bubble when deciding I would go all in against big stack with oe str8 draw - with slightly above average stack. second time about the same, but this time just ran out of chips and took a chance that went down. need to remember how to play the later stages of mtts, I can do it, just not right now

elsewhere have only got any money left on mansion, where I am not overly endowed with funds. so, with christmas coming up I think I will probably cut back a little and maybe spend a little more time on the tribeca skin. the 6 seater stts are very soft and my strike rate in them is around 50%, just need to steer clear of the mtts that my bank roll can't afford

Slowly Does It

So, Betfair moved onto the Pokerchamps platform and completely fucked everything up - the site has gone to the dogs, the forum is deserted and most of those still posting are pissed off with the site. My form has been frankly terrible, when I have been playing, I have been losing. Simple solution to that problem, don't play.

Easier said than done of course, it's a hobby I enjoy for the most part, but when my bank is done this time I will take a break until the 12 plays of christmas, or BF make their interface look like the old crypto one.

GL at the tables!

Can I Be Bothered to Post?

Put simply no :)

Have been far too busy lately to devote much time to poker and even less to blogging. Footie and rugby seasons have started, which means I am out all weekend with my boys and learning how to play golf with them too.

When I have played recently I have found my STT and MTT form is absent, I think I need to recover my patience, but have made some progress playing small stakes pot limit Omaha.

I find that particularly with cash, timing the departure from the table right determines how much retained profit you carry over to the next day. It is reasonably easy to double your starting stack and I will do this more often than I will lose it. However, moving on from doubling to treble or more is usually only something that you can manage when the really loose players are out. Therefore, once I hit the double up, it is probably time for me to leave the table. Putting theory into practise is not always my forte - posting to a blog is one way of reminding myself what should be done.

The Opposite of Tilt

Well, having posted that update two days ago I finally accepted that I was on tilt. I guess I knew I was, but was obviously in denial about it. Bizarre that it all came about after the result at BFWCOP. Subsequent to the eye opening, I have felt much more confident in my game and as a result have played much more like I know I can. That and I had a really good kip last night: flaked out about 10 and overslept until 7am - 9 hours = almost a whole weekend's sleep in one night!

Two games tonight:
- 1x £5 nlh stt on Betfair - 1st: With a little help from my friends AA, QQ and TT
- 1x$10 nlh 6-seater on Mansion - 1st: Timed levels, plenty of opportunity to recover from early setbacks, without the lunacy on the BF 6 packs. Table not good, only 2 out of the 6 players were of any decent standard and we both made the money.

Upgrade Hell

I upgraded my antivirus and firewall last week, which meant I couldn't post updates to my blog until I had worked out how to enable all the nasty components you obviously need to enter text into an html word processor...

Gave me time to think about why I have been on a bit of a losing streak since the BFWCOP. Managed not to come last in the Flashmob on Sunday by a whisker, falling for some table banter from dbth who had flopped nut str8 when I had top pair with str8 and flush draws that did not come. Did the same on Mansion on Friday too. Maybe the solution is to withdraw 90% of my balance to enforce some discipline in my play - which is where I have been falling down.

Congrats to dibble for winning a trip to the BAPT in Singapore with 5 consecutive STTs on Betfair. This is no mean feat for any level of player.

Friday Night Update

So, wasn't necessarily planning an update, but reading the latest version of Betfair's The Deal newsletter I find I have made my mark.

Which of the forumites would you most like to play heads-up against?

It would have to be anyone but Milton Bradley, 2 hours, or whatever it was, was quite enough for me! If I had to choose though I’d probably like to play KingHawko, especially if I am lucky enough to keep cracking his J4 off with AA.

Nuff respect to strokeit, would be tough to play him heads up again too, although in retrospect I did enjoy it a lot. Hopefully will get the chance to play him heads up again in the future.

I won the Betfair STT I entered as was updating last time, meaning I am no longer super tilt on sharkscope. Tried a bluff on the Pokerchamps $1k guaranteed that saw me knocked out when I was down to about 15 x BB and haven't played since.

The Curse of Withdrawal

Took £1800 out of Betfair as a result of BFWCOP. The inevitable has happened, in that I seem to have been unable to play a game of marbles since. Have played a few STTs, the first of which I was blinded out because I had my MTT head on. Also played in the Flashmob on Sunday and fished myself out. Slightly better on the cash tables in that so far have managed to play two Omaha sessions without loss, though am working on fixing that record as I type.

On Pokerchamps have been running much better, 3rd and 1st in the $5 11:00pm MTT, one fail in another $5 MTT and a win and a place in 2 STTs. Balance now up to over $130 on that site. I have been tempted to enter tonights $1k guaranteed as it seems to be excellent value given the relative lack of runners, looks like it's going to be a $375 added.

[Late update, just checked sharkscope and found I am on Super Tilt. It's STT time!]

BFWCOP II Review

So, played my biggest live tourney last weekend. Put it more simply, it was the second live MTT and only the 4th time I had played poker live. Following is extracted from my posting to the betfair forum with another couple of thoughts at the end.
=====
It was excellent to meet up with all the posters from the Betfair forum and the flashmob certainly managed a good turnout at the bar on Friday.

In the team event, I was playing on a table with JPJ and Hawko. Clearly my idea to have a flashmob last longest by time bet was a bad idea with these 2 loons chucking their chips around. Eventually, from SB I flat called with KQ against JPJ who checked. Flop was K9x, so I checked and JP was all in - an easy call based on his aggression. I was delighted when he showed 9-5, until the 5 came on the turn and I was on my way out. Spent the rest of the evening drinking Guinness with team Flash (almost all early exits) and sat down for an STT with Pennick, playing any two cards he beat my AK with the 8-4 monster. Congrats to boro for winning his table and the flash last longest bet.

Next day decided I was going to stay sober and drive, so me and AJ went out and found a cafe for breakfast about 12:00. Breakfast No.3 with beans and black pudding certainly put some colour back into my cheeks and we even bumped into the dutch representative of paddy poker.

Arrived at the club and seemed to wait for an eternity for the game to start, it eventually got underway around 2:30ish with 109 payers. Started in Seat 6 and looked down for the first had - AA! Called early raise as was first hand and watched an Ace appear on the flop with 2 hearts. Turn made it worse by putting the 3rd heart out but as no raise from the other player, I put in a 1 k raise on the river and he called with AK. Off and running.

Played very tight for ages, then when the blinds started to go up I was moved to a table with estelle, doobs and kp. I think i arrived with about 10-12k of chips when the blinds were 600-1200. By the time the blinds were up to 2-4k I was down to 8K of chips - 88 in the hole and I was all in to double up. Almost next hand A9 suited, push and hope - that was me up to 36k. Then not for the first or last time I was dealt AA. Small blind goes all in with 44 and an easy call sees me up to around the 65k mark.

Down to about 10 or 11 left and am feeling confident, AQ suited on the button and I raised. Doobs was sitting on BB with 88 and we both ended up all in pre-flop. Flop QAQ and the 8 on the river meant that even if had slow played the FH, I was always going to be taking 63 out of his 64k stack. He doubled 2 or 3 times before eventually going out on the SB - but I was sitting on about 120k of chips and heading for the final table.

When the final table was brought together, I was sitting down with a lot of people I had read postings from and about. Regalfish, Strokeit, Martin Green, nibbles, verapera, Sunday8pm, highstack and two others whose names I didn't know (even though I sat next to one of them for about 6 hours...)

Started very tight, watching sunday and martin playing more often than not. As the blinds started to go up, I took out a few of the shorter stacks (not sure if the order is right):

highstacks - I have AA in blinds with 120k, strokeit 35k raise from utg (must have big Ace), highstacks all in with 80k (assume big pair) - ergo I am ahead of both and the only way to keep strokeit out is to go all in - I did and he folded - flop Jxx (OMG I have one out), turn A and there was no help on the river - I moved into 2nd or 3rd after this hand
verapera - AQ vs 88, board 99 10 10 x meant that I took it with the ace high
Martin Green - my QQ vs his KK when he was short stack - I hit a Q on the flop

After we eventually agreed a chop with 5 left (my fault for wanting a slightly better deal than was offered), we started playing for the package only. This loosened the table up for a bit with the bigger stacks bullying the smaller ones.
regalfish - I think AQ vs 55 and I hit a queen
sunday8pm - AK vs JJ, he had just been hit by strokeit and I had him covered and hit my bigger pair

Strokeit took out Nibbles with a bigger straight and it was heads up. Embarassingly at one stage I had about 75% of the chips. I made my one playing mistake of the day and called with KJ all in and he was back ahead about 55-45. He made his mistake then and reminded me more than once how bad I had played that hand - it helped me get my concentration back again and for the next hour or so it was a real grind. We swapped dealers a few times and the cameraman fell asleep in the corner.

As the clock came round to 4:00am strokeit proposed a chop and I accepted, we would go one hand cards face up for the bracelet and bfwcop championship. Strokeit won with a pair of Kings and at last I could do something about getting to bed, nearly 14 hours poker is a pretty tough ask. I think I really only made the one mistake, but you might have noticed above I came from behind 3 times with AQ at critical times. A big thanks to the dealers who gave me 7 AAs on the night: all of them held up, 4 for significant pots and only 2 for the blinds.

Enjoyed the banter on all the tables, especially with nibbles when we were down to 4. I still don't want to tell him what I had for my all in bet when he had 88 on the Big Blind.
=====
Having reflected on this for a couple of days now, I honestly consider myself extremely lucky. I came from behind 6 times in the list above and though I always had a strong hand until the q8 where I conspicuously failed to hit, it was still less than evens every time. Against highstacks I was down to 5% after the flop but still came through. So, will bask in the warm glow for a few more days before I decide whether or not to move onto MTTs or try and play a bit more live.

Given all the bad beats I took last week, I feel very much like karma gave me them all back, in Spades (AQ) in one night,

Made about $25 last night playing Omaha cash, lost 1 £5 STT tonight by playing like a rock until I got blinded out.

Charging Downwards

Had a bad week, so bad I'm in denial and am not going to post my balances. Have loaded on Ladbrokes this week, taken a shine to giving away my chips playing HiLo MTTs. Not had the best of luck either, hand of the week being quad 9s taken down by a rivered straight flush:

Game #3312792474: Omaha PL (15/30) - 2006/09/02 - 21:51:33 (GMT)
Table "STT 3376967 - 1" Seat 3 is the button.
Seat 1: harayir (1840 in chips)
Seat 2: Bake11012 (2308 in chips)
Seat 3: kloe (828 in chips)
Seat 4: Aldomist (872 in chips)
Seat 5: Scadie (785 in chips)
Seat 6: PETERBORO (805 in chips)
Seat 7: stampman (880 in chips)
Seat 9: Steve180 (1202 in chips)
Seat 10: Trifle1 (480 in chips)
Aldomist: posts small blind 15
Scadie: posts big blind 30
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to harayir [8h Qh 9s 9d]
PETERBORO: calls 30
stampman: calls 30
Steve180: calls 30
Trifle1: calls 30
harayir: calls 30
Bake11012: calls 30
kloe: folds
Aldomist: calls 15
Scadie: checks
----- FLOP ----- [3c 5c 9h]
Aldomist: checks
Scadie: checks
PETERBORO: bets 30
stampman: calls 30
Steve180: folds
Trifle1: calls 30
harayir: raises to 390
Bake11012: folds
Aldomist: folds
Scadie: folds
PETERBORO: calls 360
stampman: folds
Trifle1: calls 360
----- TURN ----- [3c 5c 9h][9c]
PETERBORO: checks
Trifle1: checks
harayir: bets 60
PETERBORO: calls 60
Trifle1: calls 60 and is all-in
----- RIVER ----- [3c 5c 9h 9c][7c]
PETERBORO: checks
harayir: bets 300
PETERBORO: folds
Returned uncalled bets 300 to harayir
----- SHOW DOWN -----
harayir: shows [8h Qh 9s 9d] (Four of a kind, Nines, Seven high)
Trifle1: shows [6c 2c 5h 4c] (Straight Flush, Seven high)
Trifle1 collects 1620 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 1620 Main pot 1620 Rake 0
Board [3c 5c 9h 9c 7c]
Seat 1: harayir showed [8h Qh 9s 9d] and lost
Seat 2: Bake11012 folded on the Flop
Seat 3: kloe (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Aldomist (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Scadie (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: PETERBORO folded on the River
Seat 7: stampman folded on the Flop
Seat 9: Steve180 folded on the Flop
Seat 10: Trifle1 showed [6c 2c 5h 4c] and won (1620) with Straight Flush, Seven high

Roll on the bfwcop...

Hard work for some

Played for about 7 hours today - started in the afternoon and lost stack playing FH into quads in omaha on ladbrokes, beaten in about 3 STTs, last resort was playing in an Omaha Hi/Lo freeroll+rebuy on Ladbrokes. Started at 8.05 with 2,300+ runners, rebought once for $1, just finished 4 hours later and qualified as a top 20 finisher. Checked what I had qualified for - a $22 buy-in to another satellite tomorrow night. Still, this one is worth $220 buy-in to the winner, so would be a good tourney to qualify from if I can keep myself awake.

Return to the Magic Sign

Early post because I'm going to my mother in laws soon and will mss the flashmob game tomorrow night :(

Had 2 STT defeats on Betfair so decided to go back onto Ladbrokes again. Bubbled for the 2nd consecutive STT on there with AQ running into BB who could not put down 9-10s to a 4x pre-flop raise on Level 5. Then spotted that they were running special added STTs. Was down to $10 in the account, so added another £24 and entered two Omaha STTs, $5 with $25 added and $10 with $50 added, while playing a £5 Holdem STT on Betfair.

After about 5 minutes I spotted that one of the Omaha games was showing Lo hands as well as high, which surprised me a bit, or actually a lot. This meant I was playing 3 different types of poker concurrently. Went out on the Betfair game first finishing 6th and not playing very well - I can blame it on the Omaha and no playing badly to justify it to myself. On the Ladbrokes games I was actually playing quite well and riding a bit of luck. About an hour later I had won the $5 hi lo table for $37.50 and come second on the pot limit $10 for $45. I really should have won them both, I played the last hand even though I knew it was weak pre-flop when we were within 100 chips of each other heads up.

Betfair balance - £97
Ladbrokes - $121
Pokerchamps - $80
Jennings - $42

New Links Section

Edited my template so now I have some links to other blogs that I read regularly, I think all of them are probably founder members of the Betfair poker forum flashmob (AJ this is ultimately all your responsibility for kicking it off).

Weekly Results Round-up

Had a reasonable week with the exception of the flashmob. All the top 6 failed to score more than 1 point. Should see me move up to 5th, but it was a great opportunity to make up ground and I blew it by walking my top pair into Emzo who had flopped a nut flush.

Results:
Betfair - 2 £2MTTs & Flashmob: unplaced. 7 £5 STTs: 2 wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd - balance up to £99 from £89 end of last week
Jennings - 1 rebuy, unplaced, balance $42 (I think)
Pokerchamps - 1 STT, 2nd, 1 $11 MTT 3rd - balance up to $80 from $48
Ladbrokes - loaded £25 yesterday and blew most of it - 2 STTs and 1 MTT, no places

Sharkscope now showing nice upward curve for Betfair account, meaning I am approaching break-even on the STTs since they started coverage. Equivalent of 2 more wins will see me into the black - looks like it took me 100 games to work out how to play the game reasonably (i.e. stay away from the 6pak thunder lotteries)

Progress Update

Haven't played much in the last week, slight profit since returning from holiday including a 2nd place (£45) in the Betfair Flashmob league on Sunday. Had a bit of luck on an STT that overlapped the start of the MTT, recoving from 100ish chips heads up to win. Played well on the Flashmob until made the money, then called Smart Money when I knew he had an Ace and I had A2 soooted. Then lasted one hand heads up vs SM calling with K10 when I really did not need to and knew he had an Ace again. Think I destabilized myself and the table with 3 consecutive all-ins when there were 4 players left - only 5 or 6 more hands were played after I did that.

Account balance has gone from £60 to £73 plus a seat on a £5 STT while I am making this update. Most of the downside has come on a couple of ventures onto the Omaha PL cash tables as Sharkscope says I am breakeven on the STTs I have played since I got back.

Have been drawn on table 5 for BFCOP team event, means I get to play a couple of players live for the first time who I have played online. Will be mostly playing STTs between now and the weekend of 8/9 Sep for this reason.

Service interruption

Went on holiday expecting internet access and arrived to find there wasn't any...

First game back last night, played £5 omaha STT and reached final 3 as chip leader when promptly walked into full house from 2nd and lost 90% of stack and finished 3rd - need to get back into the zone with a bit more practice

The History of Poker

OK, the history of poker from my perspective...

First played poker about 2 years ago, having seen one of my mates playing on Ladbrokes, so started playing on there and Betfair. Since then have also opened up accounts on PartyPoker, Jennings (VC) and PokerChamps (soon to be Betfair).

Have mostly played around at small cash levels and STTs, but have made final table on 2 big Betfair tourneys including 3rd in the BF Santa for a trip to New York and about £1,800 cash.

Much prefer playing on Betfair graphics and I know I am in profit there since the amount paid in is significantly less than the amount paid out. On the others I am well down on Ladbrokes, but that is where I learnt to play. Wiped out on PartyPoker and never reloaded, never quite managed to win on the low stakes Omaha tables there. Loaded once on Pokerchamps and Jennings and both accounts currently have about what I started with.

Never quite got round to buying a tool like PokerTracker, but do like following myself on sharkscope. Current form is reasonable, with 4 cashes out of last 8 games, but only the one win (tonight) in a £5 Omaha stt. Am showing as having negative profit, the cause of which was largely 6-pak thunders. I steer clear of these now since they are like playing bingo without the craic.

Welcome

Only created this blog because I wanted to post a comment on someone else's... will see how long it lasts, started without good intentions.